


Sentinel Summer Camp

by Brumeier



Series: Summer Camp 'verse [1]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Mystery, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-28
Updated: 2012-11-28
Packaged: 2017-11-19 17:30:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jim and Blair met as kids at summer camp? Friendships will be made, secrets will be revealed, and mysteries will be solved. There might even be camp songs! No creepy kid slash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I own no rights to any of the Sentinel characters. Believe me, if I did that show would’ve turned out a lot different! LOL! The camp and original characters are all me, though.
> 
> Originally posted on FanFic.net

Jimmy Ellison sat up in a tree, lounging on a particularly large, knobby oak branch, and watched the other campers arrive. He’d had the misfortune of being there two days before everyone else, because that worked best with his father’s business trip plans. The camp idea hadn’t been his or his father’s, though…it had been Bud’s, the Ellison’s neighbor and the person Jimmy wished was really his dad. Bud thought he needed to do something more than laze around all summer and had found Camp In-Ca-Cha. The Adirondacks in New York were light years away from Cascade, in Washington State; it didn’t smell the same here.

Most of the other campers seemed happy enough, laughing and talking and already starting to make new friends or reconnect with old ones. Well, Jimmy wasn’t looking for any friends. Especially not genius kids. He didn’t know what Bud was thinking, choosing a camp for gifted kids. It’s not like he was brilliant or something. Bud said he had “gifts” but his dad called them “curses.” He himself was often divided on the issue. One thing they were for sure was secret.

He was far enough away from the cabins that the other kids should have been random blobs of color scurrying around, and to anyone else they would be. But he could see them as clearly as if they were standing right in front of him. He kept an eye out for any pretty girls; anything to make four weeks of exile go faster. He cocked his head, letting their voices come.

_“Oh my gosh, I totally love your new hair cut!”_

_“Can you believe I forgot my bug spray?”_

_“I hear the math instructor is a total hottie!”_

_“Did you see Susie Miller? She finally got some tits.”_

_“This sucks.”_

That last one sounded just as disgruntled as Jimmy felt, and he tried to find the face that went along with the words. Oh, just some little kid. He looked happy enough, smiling at everyone, but he sure didn’t sound happy. The kid didn’t look much older than his brother Steven, who was eleven, but four years age difference was a big gap, especially when you were a teenager.

With a sigh, Jimmy shimmied back down out of the tree and headed to his cabin. He’d already staked out his bed and wanted to make sure his new roommates wouldn’t try and steal it from him. Twenty eight more days. He’d liked it better being here alone with the counselors, who mostly left him to his own devices. Tonight they’d probably make him go to the big First Night bonfire. Classes started tomorrow, after a big welcome celebration. It was like summer school, only with canoes.

The cabin wasn’t very big. Three bunkbeds, plus a small room in the back where the counselor slept. Jimmy’s cabin was number 5, lakeside, and his counselor was Rich Berger; the other counselors called him Hamburger. He was in college, studying to be a gym teacher or something. At the moment he was greeting the other boys assigned to the cabin, all smiles. There were only four of them, which left an empty bed. After one look at Jimmy’s frowning face, the empty bed was the top bunk of the one he’d chosen, which suited him just fine.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself?” Hamburger suggested.

Jimmy shoved his hands in the pockets of his camp shorts; everyone in his age group had white polo shirts and blue shorts. “Jimmy Ellison. Washington State.” He lay down on his bed and threw an arm over his eyes, listening as the other boys introduced themselves.

Kyle, from New York. Adam from Pennsylvania. Gary from Gary, Indiana, har har har. Ben from Vermont. They talked amongst themselves about the courses they were taking, and what their core subjects were, and where they wanted to go to college. Jimmy tuned them out. They were clearly happy to be here, happy to be taking classes in the middle of the summer and wearing goofy camp uniforms; his itched something awful and he had to wear his own t-shirts underneath as a kind of buffer. He wished he was back home, playing pick-up baseball and watching old Jags games that he’d taped off TV.

His sensitive hearing picked up more people heading toward the cabin; two, by the sounds of it. The faint smell of gardenias floating in on the breeze made his lips twitch in a half smile; it was Miss Miles, who was nominally in charge of the camp. She was pretty, blonde and leggy, and wore a whistle on a lanyard that fell right between her breasts. Jimmy was a big fan of Miss Miles.

“Rich? Someone messed up with the applications. We’re all full over in Falcon and this young man needs a cabin. You have an extra bed, right?”

Falcon? That was the stupid name for the kids who were ten to twelve years old. Jimmy’s group was called Jaguar, for thirteen to sixteen. Were they really going to stick a little kid in his cabin? He moved his arm, and saw the kid he’d noticed earlier standing hesitantly to the side, Miss Miles’ hand on his shoulder. He was short and slight, with a mass of curly brown hair. Jimmy could see he was clearly embarrassed, maybe even a little angry, but his big blue eyes never stopped moving, taking everything in.

“He looks young,” Hamburger said doubtfully. The kid’s face flushed.

“He’s ten. But really smart, right buddy?” Miss Miles smiled down at him. “He’s taking a mix of intermediate and advanced courses.”

“What’s your name, kid?” Hamburger asked, stooping down a bit.

“Blair Sandburg,” was the murmured reply.

“Well, Blair, we have an empty bed right over there by the window. Are you okay with the top bunk?” Hamburger nodded at Miss Miles, who smiled at him gratefully before walking away.

“Top’s fine,” he said, so quietly that Jimmy wasn’t sure anyone but he could hear.

“Your bunkmate there is Jimmy, he’ll help you get squared away.” Hamburger shot him a look and Jimmy sighed. He waited for Blair to be introduced around to the other guys, then pointed out where his footlocker was so he could put his over-stuffed knapsack in it.

“Thanks,” Blair said softly.

“So where are you from, Blair?” Hamburger asked.

“Munchkin Land,” Ben said under his breath. Jimmy narrowed his eyes; couldn’t they see the poor kid was already feeling uncomfortable? No need to tease him.

“All over. My mom and I just came from Tibet.”

“Tibet? What, were you hanging with the Dalai Lama?” Ben again, but the other boys laughed along with him. Blair flushed; the kid was sensitive.

“Actually, yeah. We were.”

That just made the other guys laugh even more. Jimmy was already getting annoyed, and he felt bad for Blair. He wasn’t sure who the Dalai Lama was, but figured it was some kind of other-country celebrity. Not that it mattered.

“You want me to show you around?” he asked the kid. “It’s gonna be a little while before we need to be back.”

“Sure,” Blair said with a shrug. But Jimmy could read the signs of relief on his face. Shooting a glare at his cabin-mates, he ushered the younger boy out the door.

“Twenty minutes, Jimmy,” Hamburger called after him. “We have icebreakers in Central.”

Jimmy nodded, muttering under his breath what he thought about icebreakers.

“That’s Falcon over there,” he said to Blair, pointing. “Where you would’ve been.”

“The blue shirts,” Blair muttered. 

“Yup. And Alpaca across the Green, for the really little kids. Yellow shirts.” He indicated a triangular swath of green, dotted with Adirondack chairs and benches, that was bordered by all three groups of cabins. Jaguar had the only cabins right on the lake.

“You come here every year?” 

“First time,” Jimmy said. “Got here two days early, so I had time to look around.”

Blair just nodded, trailing after Jimmy as he showed him the playing fields – for archery, football, volleyball, and basketball, Central Hall, the performance stage, the classroom buildings that fanned out from Central like the spokes in a wheel, and the docks where the canoes were stacked up.

“You swim?” Jimmy asked. He knew they offered lessons here, too. He himself wasn’t sure about swimming in Lake Chopec; it was murky, for one thing, and he was sure there were snapping turtles in there. No way did he want anything to do with snapping turtles.

“Yeah. Naomi…I mean, my mom…she made sure I learned how after I fell into a canal in Venice. I was three,” Blair added, almost apologetically.

Jimmy was suitably impressed. Unless the kid was a liar, and he wasn’t getting that feel off of him at all, he really had been all over. What the heck was he doing at a summer camp in the Adirondacks?

“Oh, wow! Horses!” Blair ran ahead, excitement written large on his face. “Do we get to ride them? I’ve never ridden on a horse. Naomi’s afraid of ‘em.”

The stable held ten horses, all of them beautiful animals. Jimmy had only ridden a handful of times, but his father had friends who raced horses and he had learned how to recognize and appreciate good horseflesh.

“Lessons and trail rides,” he confirmed. “But you have to help muck out the stalls and everything.”

“Are there indigenous people here?” Blair asked, his eyes bright. “I’d sure like to talk to some.”

Jimmy just gave him a blank look, confused by the quick change of subject and also the unfamiliar word.

“You know. Native Americans? Up here, I think it’s Iroquois. Man, they have some great stories, you know? We spent some time out West a couple years ago, at the Taos Reservation. Those people were so cool. I got to do a sweat lodge!”

Jimmy couldn’t help but grin. When the kid was excited he bounced around and gestured with his hands. He wished he could tell him yes, but he hadn’t noticed anyone here who even looked Native American.

“I haven’t seen any,” he said with an apologetic shrug. “You could ask Miss Miles.”

“That’s okay. You know, I was surprised they weren’t having a course on Native American culture. I’d have taken that for sure. But there’s an anthropology class I’m in that’s going to be awesome!”

Jimmy thought maybe that was something like archaeology, but he didn’t want to ask. So he just nodded, wondering again why Bud had chosen this camp. He knew he wasn’t stupid, but he had the distinct feeling that this little twerp had an IQ that blew his out of the water. It was disconcerting.

“What courses are you in?” Blair asked, looking honestly interested. Jimmy shrugged again, wishing he could say he was doing something like advanced calculus.

“Crime Scene Investigation, and Self Defense.”

“That’s cool. You thinking about being, like, a CSI guy or something?”

“Maybe.” Which was a lie. Jimmy wanted to be a police officer, had wanted that for a really long time. But it was another secret he kept, because his father took a dim view of law enforcement. William Ellison was a business man, and he wanted his sons to be business men. It bored Jimmy to tears. He wanted to drive around in a cool car, like Nash Bridges or Starsky and Hutch, and catch criminals. He thought he’d be pretty good at it, too, because of his “gifts.”

Jimmy wandered back up to the tree he’d been sitting in earlier, Blair tagging along behind. “There’s a really good view of camp from up there,” he said, pointing up. He wasn’t the only one who thought so, either; someone had nailed several small, wooden footholds into the trunk for easier access to the lower branches.

“Uh, no thanks.” Blair backed away. “I’m, uh, afraid of heights.”

“Oh. Well, that’s okay.” Jimmy led him back towards the lake and sat on a little hill overlooking the water. Blair sat next to him, idly running his hand through the grass. Silence grew between them, but he didn’t feel the need to fill it. He had to admit, it was kind of nice being out here in the mountains. He didn’t have to monitor his senses so much here, away from the city. Although, compared to the Rockies the Adirondacks didn’t seem much like mountains at all.

“So where do you live?” Jimmy asked after a while.

“We’re always traveling,” Blair replied.

“You mean you don’t have a house or anything?” Jimmy had a hard time imagining that. His own home wasn’t always the most comfortable or happy place to be, but it was still home. He had his own room, full of posters, sports trophies, and books.

“It’s not so bad,” the kid said, looking out over the lake. “I don’t have to go to regular school, and I get to see the coolest stuff. Naomi and I climbed partway up Mount Everest with these Sherpas, and we stayed with farmers in China. Other cultures are really interesting, that’s why I want to be an anthropologist.”

“So, you’d…study people?” 

Blair laughed. “Yeah, basically.”

“What does your mom think about it?” Jimmy was honestly curious. The inner workings of other families always interested him, probably because his own was so messed up.

“She’s all for it. Trying to talk me into going to college early and everything. I don’t know, though.” Blair ran a hand through his hair. “Seems like I’d be some kind of freak or something if I did that.”

“Parents always think they know best,” Jimmy said derisively. Blair looked over at him, thoughtful.

“Your folks give you trouble too?”

“My dad. He’s a hardass.”

“What about your mom?” Blair asked. Jimmy turned his head, looking away.

“She left, when I was little.”

“Sorry.”

Silence stretched between them again. Jimmy wondered how long it would take for his mother’s absence to stop hurting him. He knew it was his fault she was gone, though his father had never come right out and said so. He’d been born normal, but when he was three his senses started going crazy. That time was hazy to him now, but he could still remember how it felt, remember how much trouble he caused until things had settled down and he’d gotten a handle on his so-called gift.

“I don’t know who my dad is,” Blair blurted out. 

“What?”

The kid blushed. “Naomi…she says she doesn’t either. But I think she just doesn’t want me to know.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

They grinned at each other then, feeling kinship in their similar single-parent circumstances. Jimmy ruffled the kid’s hair.

“Come on, let’s head back. Gonna be time for dinner soon. Hope you like burgers.”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes.

*o*o*o*

That night, as Jimmy lay in bed trying to fall asleep, he could hear Blair crying above him. The kid was doing his best to be quiet about it, but he could hear him just the same. He felt bad, but knew it would just embarrass both of them if he let Blair know he was awake and listening. After twenty minutes the crying stopped and Jimmy could hear that he’d fallen asleep.

He rolled over, willing himself to follow suit. But sleep was often elusive for him. The quiet was never quiet enough. He had a hard time modulating his hearing enough to block out the noises inside and outside of the cabin. At home he had one of those white noise machines next to his bed, which helped a lot; he hadn’t wanted to bring it with him, for fear of being teased. Stupid mistake.

Jimmy cast his attention back to the top bunk, grinning when he could hear Blair’s heartbeat. The regular thump-thump of it was very soothing. Without consciously deciding to set his focus there, he let that heartbeat block out everything else until he finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** So there I was, taking a shower and minding my own business, when this plot bunny jumped right in and bit me on the leg. Rude! Still, it was too fun to ignore. Special thanks to my writing partner-in-crime, Smiles2Go, who came up with some good suggestions. You rock, girlfriend!
> 
> I took liberties with the age difference between Blair and Jim. I know there is more than five years there, so we’ll chalk this up to artistic license. In fact, since this is an AU, we can probably put the just-cause-I-wanted-to tag on everything. ::grins::


	2. Chapter 2

By the third day of classes Jimmy had established a routine, which appealed to his well-ordered mind. Up at seven o’clock to avail himself of the boy’s bathroom, and then a walk along the lakeshore. He was a boy who enjoyed his solitude, most of the time, and there wasn’t much opportunity for that here.

Breakfast started at eight o’clock and he was one of the first ones in line at the buffet. The scrambled eggs were a bit dry, but the bacon was nice and crisp. Jimmy had tried to get Blair to come with him but the kid was definitely not a morning person; he’d rush in ten minutes before breakfast ended, wolfing down some toast or oatmeal before going to his crafts class.

He didn’t see much of Blair during the day, even at lunch. They both had differing class schedules and it wasn’t until evening activities that they’d get to catch up with each other. Dinner was the only meal each day that Blair wasn’t late for, and he’d spend most of it sharing interesting things he’d learned that day.

Much to his surprise, Jimmy found that he enjoyed his classes. Archery was a breeze, once he got the hang of working the bow; he used his enhanced vision to aim his shots, and the instructor was impressed with the distance he could achieve. He was careful about it, though, and made sure to mess up sometimes too. He never forgot that what he could do was supposed to be a secret.

Crime Scene Investigation was an interesting class, and right away he got excited about the various ways he could use his senses in a law enforcement capacity. The instructor, Mr. Doyle, explained the history of forensics and the role of technology therein. He arranged some basic field tests for everyone in the class, then split them into groups based on their aptitudes. Jimmy was in a group with three other kids his age, sitting at a table in one corner of the classroom.

“This is so cool!” Penny was the only girl in the group, and one of only three in the whole class. She had spiky pink hair, too much makeup, and rubber bracelets all up her arm; she didn’t look like a genius to Jimmy.

“You wanna be an investigator?” he asked doubtfully.

“I like forensics,” she explained with a toothy grin. “I like the idea of finding those tiny, microscopic clues.”

“Seems like CSIs find the puzzle pieces and someone else gets to put them all together.” Jared was the oldest of the four. He had a deceptively casual, laid-back air. He was on the camp football team, and Jimmy knew first hand what a serious, focused athlete he was.

“It’s about being part of a team,” Penny argued. “You work together on the puzzle.”

Jared just shrugged, slouching down in his chair. Jimmy himself thought it would be kind of nice, having someone be your partner and solving crimes together. Someone who would always be watching your back. 

“What about you, Jimmy?” Penny asked.

He shrugged. “I guess this stuff would be good for cops to know.”

“Or private eyes,” added Roddy, the gangly jokester. He pushed aside the ever-present lock of blue-black hair that hung over his left eye. “You could do a whole Sherlock shtick using forensic clues.”

“I hear there’s people who can tell all about you just by facial expressions,” Jared said. “That would be cool, if you could learn it.”

“Like a human lie detector?” Penny mused, thoughtful.

Jimmy, ever the keen observer, didn’t need special skills to see that Penny liked Jared. She was constantly glancing over at him, and her heart would race whenever they made eye contact. He himself didn’t have a girlfriend. Not yet, anyway. He still wasn’t sure they were worth all the trouble.

Mr. Doyle went around the room, depositing plastic jars on each table. He set two down in front of Jimmy and smiled at everyone before addressing the class.

“Okay, CSIs. Your task is to discover all you can about the substances in the jars and record your results on your group’s iPad.”

“Can we open them?” someone asked.

“Yes. There is nothing harmful or toxic in the jars. You have to the end of class. Tomorrow we’ll discuss your results and how well they matched the actual samples. Go ahead and get started.”

Penny picked up one of the jars, which had muddy-looking water in it. “Anyone want to taste it?”

“Good luck finding a volunteer for that,” Roddy said, pulling a face. He nudged the second jar with one finger; this one had a solid substance inside.

“Let’s start with Penny’s,” Jimmy suggested.

“Okay.” Penny unscrewed the cap, immediately crinkling her nose. “Gross!”

Jimmy grimaced as well; with his heightened senses, the smell was incredibly strong.

“Give it here,” Jared said, holding out his hand. He accepted the jar from Penny and held it under his nose.

“Sulfur.” His eyes narrowed in concentration. “Dirt. And something else. I can’t tell what.”

Jared passed the jar to Jimmy. Now that two of the scents had been identified, he was able to block them out to some degree.

“There’s something metallic.” He closed his eyes, took another breath, and tried to identify the faint taste it left on the back of his throat.

“What kind of metal?” Penny prompted.

“I don’t…it’s like…pennies?”

“Blood,” Roddy said with a frown. “I bet it’s blood.”

Jimmy hastily handed him the jar, sloshing the contents.

“Sorry,” Roddy said. Then he stuck his finger in the jar, wetting the tip. “Oh, man.”

Penny, Jimmy and Jared all groaned and made faces when Roddy popped his finger in his mouth.

“Yup,” he confirmed. “Definitely blood.”

“That is so disgusting,” Penny muttered.

Roddy shrugged. “I have a really good sense of taste, what can I say? Think of school lunches and pity me.”

Jimmy’s brow furrowed as he studied his classmate. He knew what a pain it was having a heightened sense of taste; sometimes their housekeeper Sally had to make him special meals because he couldn’t handle spices. Did Roddy have that too?

Penny picked up the jar again, holding it up to the light from the nearest window.

“There’s some sediment. Maybe some moss? It looks like moss.”

Jimmy opened up his vision, zeroing in on the jar from across the table. Penny was right, he did see some moss floating in there. It was pretty small, though, and he wondered how she’d even noticed it.

“Conclusion?” Jared asked, tapping the information into the iPad.

“Water sample from a sulfur spring,” Penny said. Roddy shook his head.

“Probably a puddle nearby. Too much dirt in the water.”

“Some animal was probably killed close by,” Jimmy offered. He was grateful when Penny capped the jar.

“Moss means somewhere shady, right?” Jared asked, looking at Jimmy for confirmation.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Cool.” Jared finished the report. “Okay, jar number two. Maybe there’ll be some animal poop you can taste this time.”

“Ha, ha,” Roddy replied.

Jimmy just watched them, feeling strange. Did they all have heightened senses, like he did? Or only just some? It seemed awfully coincidental that they’d all be in the same group. He felt a tiny prickle of hopeful pleasure; if there were others like him, maybe he wasn’t such a freak after all.

*o*o*o*

Jimmy and Blair ate dinner together at a long table full of other campers from Jaguar. Jimmy nibbled absently at his burger, his mind preoccupied with what he thought he’d discovered in class that day. But he was soon distracted by Blair, who was waving around a veggie dog with one hand while he shared the interesting gossip of the day.

“Kelly, this girl in Falcon, saw a ghost last night!”

“Did you see it too, Scooby-Doo?” Ben asked, laughing.

“No, she was really freaked out!”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. He didn’t believe in that supernatural stuff. He’d have thought Blair was too old for it, too.

“Just camp stories,” he said dismissively. “Like the guy with the hook hand.”

“Urban legends, you mean?” Blair looked thoughtful as he took a bite of his fake hotdog.

“Yeah, like waking up in a tub full of ice cause someone stole your kidney.”

“Or having bugs lay their eggs in your ear,” someone else suggested.

“I really think she saw something,” Blair interjected before anyone else could offer up a story.

“Probably one of the boys from Falcon, peeping in her window,” Ben said with a leer.

“Probably you,” Gary laughed, hitting Ben in the shoulder.

“Peeping at Falcon girls? No way! I’d be at Susie Miller’s window.”

“You’re a pig!” said a girl from the next table, throwing a wadded up napkin at Ben.

“Oink, oink!” he crowed.

“So what did she see?” Jimmy asked, taking pity on Blair. The younger boy looked at him gratefully.

“Kelly has a hard time sleeping. I guess at home she’s got a TV in her room or something. And she looked out the window and saw a ghost, hovering at the edge of the woods.”

“It’s a few yards to the treeline, Blair,” Jimmy said logically. “And it was dark last night. Overcast.”

“I really think she saw something,” the kid insisted.

Jimmy held up his hand. “She probably did, but that doesn’t mean it was a ghost.”

That gave Blair pause. He finished up his dinner in silence, but Jimmy swore he could hear the gears turning in the kid’s head.

“You wanna go to the movie?” he asked as they carried their trays to the kitchen window. “They’re showing that old hacker movie, Sneakers. It’s pretty good.”

“Nope. Thanks.” Blair took off before Jimmy could stop him.

“Going to the movie, Ellison?” Kyle asked.

“Seen it,” he replied. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Watch out for the ghost!” Ben called after him.

“Spooky fingers,” Kyle intoned, wiggling said appendages.

Jimmy grinned and headed out of Central Hall, following the path back to Jaguar. He was pretty sure he knew what Blair was up to. Sure enough, he caught up with his bunkmate on the path from Jaguar to Falcon.

“What cabin is she in?” he asked. Blair jumped, startled.

“Man, you’re quiet! What are you doing here?”

Jimmy shrugged. “Figured you could use the help.”

Blair grinned. “She’s in Falcon 4.”

Together they walked up to the cabin, then left the path to go around behind it. Jimmy cast a critical eye at the line of trees that marked the end of the clearing. From this distance, in the dark, the girl could’ve seen just about anything and her imagination would’ve turned it into a ghost.

“If it wasn’t a ghost,” Blair said. “It could’ve been a person. But why here, so late? It’s creepy.”

“Could’ve been someone sneaking a cigarette,” Jimmy surmised. “Or meeting someone where they couldn’t be seen.”

“Like, to make out or something? Gross.”

Jimmy laughed and shook his head. “Come on, Watson. Let’s see if we can find anything.”

The ‘make out’ comment seemed to be true; one of the first things Jimmy found was a condom wrapper. Not wanting to draw the kid’s attention to it, he hastily scuffed some pine needles over it with his shoe.

Blair crouched down, moving leaves, pine needles and undergrowth around with a stick. Jimmy didn’t know what he hoped to find. The ground was too dry to hold footprints, and unless the mysterious figure had dropped a business card anything they found would be useless. Still, they might as well be thorough.

He opened up his vision, carefully scanning the ground around them. He saw a candy wrapper, a yellow button, and…

“What’s that?” he muttered aloud.

“Where?” Blair hopped eagerly to his feet.

Jimmy led him a few feet into the woods and pointed to something lying half-hidden in the tree litter. The kid picked it up, pinching it carefully between his forefinger and his thumb.

“Looks like a cigar.” He looked at Jimmy with interest. “How’d you see it?”

Jimmy just shrugged, ignoring the question. He took the stub of cigar from Blair, sniffing it carefully, but all he could smell was tobacco. No, wait. Not just tobacco. There was a hint of…apple? That was weird.

“What? Do you smell something?” The kid was bouncing excitedly. “What is it?”

“It’s like apple tobacco or something.” Jimmy shrugged. “I don’t know what that means.”

“One of Naomi’s friends smokes cigars, the kind with flavors. He likes vanilla, but I bet there’s apple too.” Blair took the cigar back and put it in his pocket. “Evidence.”

“Yeah, okay Watson.” Jimmy cocked his head to the side, listening. “Falcons are coming back. We should get going.” He put action to words, heading back to the path.

“So there really was someone back here.”

“We don’t know how old that cigar is, Blair. We don’t know anything.”

“I know kids don’t smoke cigars,” Blair replied. “And it’s creepy, some grownup standing back there watching. You think it’s some kind of perv?”

“I think we don’t have enough information,” Jimmy replied.

“I guess.” But the kid didn’t sound at all discouraged. “You want a piece of gum?”

“What kind?”

“Cinnamon.” Blair pulled a rumpled back of Big Red from his pocket.

Jimmy made a face. “No, thanks. That stuff’s too strong.”

“Oh. Okay.” Blair stuffed the gum back in his pocket without taking a stick for himself. Just as they got back on the main path, a group of Falcon boys headed past them. He raised his hand in a half-hearted greeting, but the other boys just ignored him, whispering amongst themselves.

Jimmy could hear them easily enough. Clearly Blair was a pariah in his own age group because he was living in Jaguar. He scowled at the other boys for putting that hurt look in the kid’s eyes, and slung an arm over his shoulder.

“They’re just jealous, you know. Like it matters where you sleep.”

“It’s fine,” Blair muttered.

“You want to go to the bonfire tonight?”

“I don’t think so.”

They went back to their empty cabin instead. Blair retrieved a notebook from his footlocker and took it up to his bed. Jimmy pulled off the camp shirt, pleased to see that the rash it had given him was getting better. It was just a narrow strip around each arm and on his neck, the places his own shirt fell short. He pulled a tube of lotion from his toiletry bag and rubbed it in.

“Camp shirt do that?” Blair asked from the top bunk.

“I have sensitive skin,” Jimmy said defensively.

The kid hung over the end of the bed, a big smile on his face and a light in his eyes that made Jimmy suddenly wary.

“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” the kid asked.

“One of who?”

“You’re a Sentinel!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** Special thanks to my hubby, who gives these chapters a read-through for me even though he’s not a fan of Sentinel. Love you!


	3. Chapter 3

Jimmy didn’t know what a Sentinel was, and he had no chance to ask. Kyle and Gary had opted out of the bonfire and returned early, killing any chance for further inquiry. As a result, he was on edge for the rest of the night. What was it that Blair thought he’d discovered? Had he revealed too much while he was playing Sherlock? He’d corner his bunkmate at lunch, he decided.

It wasn’t meant to be. Blair stayed behind after his Anthropology class and only made it lunch long enough to grab a couple of apples.

“I want to talk to you,” Jimmy said, grabbing Blair’s arm as he went by. Once again he saw an expression in the kid’s eyes, like he’d just won a prize or something; it made him distinctly uncomfortable.

“Got class.”

“After dinner, then,” Jimmy insisted.

“Sure.”

The kid headed off, leaving Jimmy unsettled. With a sigh he left Central for his own class.

“Hey!” Penny caught him up and fell into step beside him. “What did you think about yesterday’s class?”

“It was…interesting,” he replied. Roddy had tasted the substance in the second jar as well, which had been moldy food from the kitchen; the memory of it still made him shudder.

“Roddy and Jared and I thought maybe you’d like to hang at the bonfire tonight.” Penny sounded nonchalant about it, but Jimmy detected an underlying anxiousness on her part that left him puzzled.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Great! I mean, it’ll be fun.”

He shrugged. It was a bonfire, nothing to get too worked up over. S’mores, though, now that was something else. He’d go, after he’d had a chance to talk to Blair.

In class, everyone remained in the groups Mr. Doyle had set up the day before. Only this time he’d arranged a fake crime scene using one of the male counselors as a corpse. Each group would get ten minutes to examine the scene, then write up their findings.

“Before we get started,” Mr. Doyle said. “I want to acknowledge the two groups that correctly identified both their samples yesterday. Group Two: Ryan, Parker and Charlie. Group Four: Jared, Penny, Jimmy and Roddy. Good work, guys.”

Jimmy’s group exchanged high fives. While they waited for their turn, they made some general observations based on what they could see from their table.

“Posed,” Jared said. “Nobody dies with their arms folded like that.”

“They do if they know they’re dying and want to look cool about it,” Roddy joked.

Jimmy opened up his vision. “Marks on his neck. Maybe strangled.”

“Right shoe missing,” Penny offered.

“Trophy?” Jared asked.

“Shoe fetish,” Roddy said with a grin. “Or he was killed somewhere else and the shoe got left behind.”

“Be easier to tell that if there was blood,” Jimmy mused.

“No chance of that if he was strangled.” Jared ran a hand through his short-cropped hair.

“Group Four, you’re up!” Mr. Doyle called.

They gathered around the corpse, talking in hushed tones so they wouldn’t give anything away to the other groups.

“Definitely looks like strangulation,” Jared whispered. Penny nodded her agreement.

“Nail scrapings might give some DNA. You get choked, you fight back.”

“Good thinking,” Jimmy said. He zeroed in on a hair. “Blonde hair here, on his sleeve. Not a match for the body.”

The corpse sneezed.

“Ah, geez,” Roddy complained. “Way to ruin the atmosphere.”

“Bless you,” Penny said.

The corpse grinned at her before going back to playing dead.

“You smell anything?” Jimmy asked Jared, more to double check himself than anything else.

“Too much Axe body spray,” Jared replied. The corpse glared at him. “But there’s something else, too. Like cigarette smoke.”

“If our dead guy’s not a smoker, our killer could be,” Roddy observed.

Penny pushed back the corpse’s top lip and studied his teeth.

“Pearly whites,” she reported. “If he smokes, it’s not a lot.”

“You want to lick him?” Jared asked Roddy, who flipped him off.

“Time’s up, Group Four!” Mr. Doyle herded them back to their table and let the last group go.

“What’ve we got?” asked Jared, who once again assumed the role of report writer.

“Not enough evidence,” Jimmy said. “We can’t tell if he was killed here or somewhere else.”

“He’s a counselor,” Penny said. “He’d have no reason to be here. If you pair that with the missing sneaker, I say he was killed somewhere else.”

“Could’ve been meeting someone,” Jimmy argued.

“Maybe. But there’s no signs of a struggle.”

Jimmy gave the scene another look, and conceded that point. But Roddy quickly took up the reins of that argument.

“Killer could’ve cleaned up. He took time to fold the arms.”

“I’ll put both ideas down.” Jared tapped at the iPad. “What about our killer?”

“Blonde male smoker,” Roddy said confidently.

“Could be a female,” Penny said with a frown. Roddy laughed.

“Seriously? No girl is going to strangle a big guy like that.”

“What?”

“And no self-respecting guy would let himself be strangled by a girl.”

Penny glared at him. “Want to find out?”

“He’s right,” Jimmy said with a shrug. “It would have to be a really big, really strong girl. Especially if he was moved here from somewhere else.”

Penny slouched down in her chair, clearly unhappy with the idea that only a man could’ve killed the counselor. Jared smiled and patted her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Penny. I bet there’s a lot of female serial killers and psychos out there.”

Even Penny couldn’t help but laugh at that one.

Mr. Doyle clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, class. While you’re writing up your reports, we’re going to go over your results from yesterday. Then we’ll talk about forensic technology for use out in the field, and the proper methods of gathering evidence.”

The corpse took that as his cue to get up and leave. Jimmy watched him go, committing his face to memory. He wanted to talk to that counselor later, because it wasn’t cigarettes that Jared had smelled. It was cigars. Apple scented cigars.

*o*o*o*

That night at dinner Blair was enthusiastically discussing camp news – all Falcon and Jaguar campers would be going on a day trip the following day. Everyone was abuzz with plans and speculation.

“Ms. Keefer, my crafts teacher, said we’ll be taking the canoes out!” Little blobs of ranch dressing flew around as the kid gestured with a fork full of salad. “I love boats!”

“Hiking, too,” Gary put in. “Hope you brought your bug spray.”

“Do you think we’ll see any wild animals?” Blair asked Jimmy, who shrugged. 

“Maybe. Maybe some deer or something.”

“I heard there’s black bears up here,” Gary said.

“I’m not worried about bears,” Ben said derisively. “No bear’s gonna catch me.”

“You have to climb a tree,” Blair said. “A skinny one. Bears run pretty fast.”

“I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.” Ben and some of the other guys cracked up laughing.

Jimmy shot them a dirty look, but didn’t say anything. Blair didn’t seem to be taking it personally. He listened with half an ear as the kid expounded on some animals he’d like to see, while at the same time scanning the dining hall for the counselor that had been in class today. When he finally spotted him, he nudged Blair.

“Hey,” he hissed. “You know that counselor?”

The kid, who seemed to already know everyone at camp, looked and nodded. “Ken Brickman. He’s one of the theater guys.”

In hushed tones, Jimmy filled him in. “He had that apple smell on him. He was in my CSI class today.”

Blair looked again, this time with considerably more interest. 

“You think he’s our perv?” he whispered. Jimmy rolled his eyes.

“ _No_. But he might know who was smoking out there.”

“How’d you know it’s not him?”

“Smell wasn’t strong enough. It was more like secondhand smoke.”

Blair pondered that, pushing the remains of his salad around his plate with his fork. Jimmy hoped he was finished eating, so they could finally have that talk. He certainly didn’t want to do it here, where they could be so easily overheard.

“You done?” he asked finally.

“I guess so. You want an ice cream?”

Jimmy didn’t. Blair carried both their trays to the window, then stopped at the machine to fill a cone with strawberry ice cream.

“Let’s go outside.” Jimmy led the way to the door, waiting impatiently for the kid to catch up. There was a nice, wide deck out the back that extended over the lake. It wasn’t very populated at the moment, and they were able to get a spot near the edge, sitting on a bench alongside the safety railing.

“What’s a Sentinel?” Jimmy asked, not wanting to waste any more time. Blair was fairly humming with excitement, but managed to somehow talk, gesture and eat his ice cream all at the same time.

“There’s this book, by a guy named Sir Richard Burton. Naomi took me to Bodleian Library when we were in England and I got to spend the day there. It was so awesome! I mean, the place was huge! They have this big gate, called the Great Gate…”

“The book?” Jimmy interrupted, trying to get the kid back on topic. He couldn’t think of a more boring way to spend a trip to another country, but he guessed that even people who climbed Mt. Everest needed to relax sometimes.

“Oh, right! So I found this book. That Burton guy wrote a whole book about Sentinels. Like, for thousands of years these tribes would have one guy to watch over them. He was really special, like Superman.”

“There’s nothing special about me,” Jimmy said, shaking his head. Judging by the blatant look of hero worship on the kid’s face it was clear he disagreed.

“No, but you are! Burton said these Sentinels had powers greater than regular people, senses that were so strong it would help them protect the tribe. And Jimmy, you have them all!” Blair popped the remnants of his cone in his mouth, crunching noisily. “That’s been my favorite story for two years. I never thought I’d meet a real Sentinel!”

“So, these guys, these Sentinels. They were like cops for the tribe?”

“Oh, yeah. They, like, watched the borders for enemies and made sure no-one poached their food. Stuff like that. I bet there are cops all over the world who have some Sentinel abilities. I think it’s rare to have all of them, though, especially these days. That’s what makes you so cool.”

Jimmy chose to ignore that last part. He had to admit that this whole Sentinel thing made him feel better about what he could do. There were others, a lot of them if some guy wrote a whole book about it. Was that why he wanted to be a policeman so much? Because he was supposed to protect people?

“I keep looking for more information, other stories,” Blair said, swinging his legs back and forth; he couldn’t sit still. “But there’s not a lot out there.”

“Maybe because it’s supposed to be a secret,” Jimmy said. “If there really are Sentinel cops, they probably wouldn’t want the criminals finding out.”

The kid smacked himself in the head. “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“So, Sentinels were born with the, uh, special senses?” 

“Well, kinda. Burton said that Sentinel abilities were always there in certain people, but only came out at particular times. Like, the boys in the tribe would have to go out into the jungle and do all these tasks, and then they would find out who the Sentinel was.”

Jimmy frowned. He didn’t do anything like that, so why did his powers suddenly appear?

“What kinds of tasks?” he asked.

“Things like spending a week in a tree, climbing the biggest mountain, that kind of thing. They had to spend a lot of time alone.” Blair ran a hand through his curly hair. “I don’t suppose you ever went mountain climbing in the jungle?”

“No. Never even been out of Washington, till now.”

“Hmmm. Did you always have super senses?”

Jimmy shook his head. “Got ‘em when I was three.”

“Do you remember how?”

“Yeah. I was playing hide-n-seek with my cousin Rucker. We weren’t supposed to go outside by ourselves, but I wanted a really good hiding spot. Somehow I got myself locked in my Aunt Becky’s trunk. Took them hours to find me.”

Jimmy could still remember how terrified he’d been, how he’d called for help but no-one heard him. He’d been afraid of the dark for years after that.

“They took me to the hospital after, because I was going crazy. Everything hurt – lights, sounds, even my skin. They figured it was some kind of trauma thing, but it never went away.”

“And you just learned how to deal?” If possible, Blair looked even more awe-struck. “Man, that must’ve been hard. I mean, _really_ hard.”

“Still is sometimes,” Jimmy admitted.

“Like with the shirt?”

“Yeah. And I have to be careful and not use just one sense or else I totally zone out, usually for hours.”

That hadn’t happened in a long time, though. Bud had helped him figure out a strategy – namely to never put all his focus on one sense alone. The last time it had happened was over three years ago. That time he’d nearly been creamed by a truck, and it had taken Bud and Steven hours to snap him out of it.

“Hey!” Gary poked his head out the door. “Game night! You coming?”

“I don’t…” Jimmy started to say, but Blair jumped to his feet.

“We’re coming!” He pulled Jimmy up.

“Blair, we haven’t…”

“Oh, come one! We’ll be a team. With your super powers and my superior intellect, we’ll be unbeatable!”

Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh as he followed the kid back inside Central Hall. “Just remember, Brainiac. The super powers are a secret.”

Blair looked offended.

“Like Robin would ever reveal Batman’s secrets, even under the influence of Joker gas.”

“Okay, Boy Wonder,” Jimmy grinned. “You keep my secret, I don’t make you wear tights.”

“Deal!”

*o*o*o*

Blair begged off going to the bonfire. He said he wanted to take some notes regarding “his Sentinel”, but promised not to name names. Jimmy wondered why he agreed to that, how he could trust the kid with the information when they’d only known each other a few days. He decided to just go with his instincts, which were saying that the kid would have his back.

The fire pit was huge, and it took Jimmy a few minutes to find Penny and the guys. They were sitting together on a long length of log, roasting marshmallows. Penny flashed him a big grin when she caught sight of him.

“Jimmy! Hey!” She scootched down, making room for him. Jared handed him a sharpened stick and a half-full bag of marshmallows.

“Where’s the chocolate?”

“No s’mores tonight,” Penny said apologetically, as if that were his sole reason for coming. Which it actually had been, but he decided to stick around anyway.

Jimmy speared a marshmallow, gently rotating it near the fire until it was uniformly brown on all sides. He was very particular about his roasting technique, unlike Roddy who was consistently charring or dropping his in the fire.

“What are you, a closet pyromaniac?” Jared asked, eyebrows raised. “With your sense of taste, how can you eat those so burnt?”

Roddy shrugged. “Some things just taste better that way. Like popcorn.”

“You’re just not right,” Jared said sadly, shaking his head. Roddy threw a marshmallow at him.

“So…” Penny glanced quickly at Jimmy, then looked away. “Class has been interesting.”

“Ah, the soft female approach.” Roddy pitched his voice so that it was high and dreamy sounding. “Let’s sneak round the back instead of knocking on the front door.”

“What are you talking about?” Jimmy asked, confused. He felt suddenly panicked. Did Penny like him or something? He’d been sure she had a thing for Jared, but maybe he was wrong; she sure was blushing. He wished he’d gone back to the cabin with Blair.

“You’re like us,” Jared said casually. “You see things other people can’t see.”

“Or taste them,” Roddy put in helpfully.

Jimmy reacted without thinking. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Which was a stupid thing to say. He’d been using his senses pretty freely in class; they all had. Still, it was a knee-jerk reaction. His father was insistent that no-one find out what a “freak” he was.

“I’ve seen you,” Jared said, looking him right in the eye. “In football and archery. Your sight is awesome.”

“You could smell the blood in the water,” Penny added. She offered him a tentative smile. “I can’t do that. I only have sight.”

“Just taste for me,” Roddy said. “Like, the lamest one.”

“Hearing and smell.” Jared’s gaze didn’t waver. “You have sight and smell. Any other ones?”

It’s not like he could deny it; they’d all seen him in action. But he didn’t have to tell them everything. Though they had so much more in common with him than Blair did, he didn’t feel the same level of trust here.

“It’s okay,” Penny said softly, putting her hand on his arm. “We won’t tell anyone.”

“Just sight and smell,” he lied. The other three seemed to relax almost immediately.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Roddy said. He prepped another marshmallow for a fiery death. “We’ll be the greatest CSI team in the history of this camp!”

“Funny coincidence, the four of us here at camp at the same time.” Jared tossed his stick on the fire. “And all of us in the CSI class.”

“Are you sensing a conspiracy theory?” Roddy asked. “Are aliens involved?”

“Only alien around here is you,” Jared replied with a smirk.

Jimmy tried to loosen up and join in the banter, but he suddenly felt uneasy. Jared was right, it was a coincidence. How would anyone know about their super senses? Unless he was the only one keeping them under wraps. Maybe the others were more open about what they could do back home with their friends and families.

As the camp songs started, Jimmy sang along half-heartedly with the others. It was only a coincidence. But what if it wasn’t?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** Just FYI, this fic is not set in the 90s. I decided to set this current time so I could take advantage of technology.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite Blair’s excitement about the day trip, he was still asleep when Jimmy went to breakfast. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he was excited too. He was looking forward to a break from classes and the chance to see what the Adirondacks really had to offer.

As he loaded up his plate with blueberry pancakes and the ever present crispy bacon, he saw the counselor he wanted to talk with – Ken something – sitting alone at a table. Mentally congratulating himself for being an early riser, Jimmy slid into the seat across from him.

“Ken, right?” he asked, pouring a generous amount of syrup over his pancakes. “From yesterday’s CSI class.”

“Your friendly neighborhood corpse, at your service,” Ken replied with a grin. “You guys were a pretty thorough group. I was starting to feel like a bug under a microscope.”

Jimmy tried to keep a casual tone. “All part of the job. There was one thing we couldn’t agree on, though. Whether or not you smoke.”

“Not,” Ken replied. “Pearly whites, remember?”

“Oh. Well, you must hang with some smokers, right?”

The counselor cocked his head to the side, looking interested. “Is this for class?”

“Yeah, kind of.” Jimmy shrugged. “The smoke smell was strong.”

“Some of the other counselors smoke,” Ken said after a moment. “Some of the grounds guys too. You think one of them is my killer?”

“Maybe. We’d have to…um…interrogate the smokers to be sure.” Jimmy felt like he stretching credulity, but Ken only looked amused.

“You trying for extra credit or something?”

“Never hurts.”

“Tell you what. Come find me after dinner and I’ll give you a list.”

Jimmy grinned. He took this as a sign that things were going to go well today. How could they not, when he had such good luck first thing in the morning?

“I assume this is just between us,” Ken said, standing with his tray.

“It would sure help.”

“Gotcha.” The counselor gave him a wink and left.

Jimmy polished off his own breakfast with enthusiasm and even fixed a plate for Blair, so the kid could have something besides an apple to get him through the day.

*o*o*o*

There were two canoes per cabin, three campers in each and one counselor to keep an eye on both. Jimmy was pleasantly surprised with how well Blair handled an oar; probably learned how on a trek down the Amazon or something.

Lake Chopec stretched around in a loose horseshoe, its shores dotted with cabins and boat docks. Miss Miles, in the lead canoe, was taking them up the lake about two miles to a stretch of beach where they could leave the canoes and head up a hiking trail.

“Man, this is awesome!” Blair said with a grin.

“You’re pretty good at paddling,” Ben noticed from the second canoe.

“My mom and I go kayaking sometimes.”

“I’ve never done that, is it hard?” Gary asked from his seat behind Blair. Jimmy wanted to know, too. He was always looking for new activities to share with Bud.

“Takes a while to get the hang of it,” the kid explained. “And you totally feel it in your arms and shoulders after, but it’s pretty cool.”

“We’ve got kayaks back at camp,” Hamburger said from the other canoe. “Sounds like you could give some lessons, Blair.”

“I’d like to learn,” Jimmy said.

“Me, too,” Gary added.

Blair flushed, grinning wider, and Jimmy chalked it up to the good luck that seemed to be in the air today. When the kid was happy, he was happy. And maybe now the guys would lay off the teasing for a while.

There was less chatter from the canoes than he’d expected. Maybe it was because the lake itself was so quiet and calm. Motor boats were prohibited as a means of protecting the wildlife and their ecosystem from gasoline and oil runoff. He could imagine having a summer cabin here, with nothing to disturb the solitude except for the cries of the loons. Seemed pretty perfect.

Another mile and the shrill sound of a whistle pierced the quiet. Miss Miles was signaling that they’d reached the point where the hike would begin.

“Work together to turn your canoes in toward the shore,” Hamburger called out. 

As they drew closer, Jimmy could see a Camp In-Ca-Cha sign; he didn’t know if that meant the camp owned just the beach, or the whole trail they were hiking. It was kind of nice, though, having a place that was just theirs.

When they arrived at the beach, he jumped out and helped the others pull the canoe up on the sand. They stowed their oars and hefted their backpacks. Miss Miles hopped up on a tree stump and used the whistle again to get everyone’s attention; Jimmy winced.

“Rules of the hike!” she called out. “Stay together. Everyone should have a hike buddy, but I still want you to keep in groups.”

Buddies had been established prior to leaving camp that morning and Jimmy had of course picked Blair. Penny had given him a quizzical look at that; probably she was hoping he’d want to buddy up with her or Jared or Roddy.

“Drink sparingly from your canteens. We won’t be refilling them until we stop for lunch.”

The dining hall had provided bag lunches for everyone, which they had dutifully stowed in their backpacks.

“Most importantly! Do not leave any trash on the trail, and listen to the counselors!” Miss Miles hopped off the stump and took a few minutes to confer with her underlings.

“You know,” Blair said. “In a lot of cultures they send the young men of the tribe out into the woods as a rite of passage. When they come back, they’re viewed as men.”

“You must be Blair.” Jared came over with Penny, Roddy and another guy in his wake. “I hear you’re the star of Anthro class.”

Blair flushed and looked at Jimmy uncertainly. 

“This is Jared. We’re in the CSI class together. Penny and Roddy, too.”

Roddy punched the other guy in the arm, grinning. “This is my bunkmate, Joe. He’s trying out for Sasquatch of the Year.”

Joe nodded amiably enough. He had a lot of thick brown stubble on his cheeks and chin, giving him a rugged look that was at odds with his camp polo; he was a guy who needed flannel.

“Looks like a nice day for a hike,” Penny said. “I hope you all put on bug spray. Don’t want to get Lyme’s disease.”

“Oh, right!” Blair immediately began scrabbling in his backpack for his bottle of OFF. Jimmy helped him spray it on.

“You want to hang with us?” Jared asked. “We can practice our CSI skills.”

Jimmy shook his head, knowing that he really meant they could practice their sensory skills. “Not doing any school stuff today, if I can help it.”

He wondered if Joe knew about what they could do. Again, he found he was glad he hadn’t fully disclosed the extent of his sensory abilities. Too many people knew already.

The whistle blew again, and this time Jared grimaced too. “I’m really starting to hate that thing.”

They set off on a trail that led away from the beach and into the trees. Jimmy quickly discovered that he needed to shorten his usual stride or Blair would never be able to keep up with him. He decided it was okay to slow down a bit today; there was no hurry to get to the lunch spot and he wanted to enjoy being out there in the wilderness.

One of the counselors from Falcon drew their attention to markers on the trees, signs that would help them keep on the trail. Hamburger gave a warning about poison ivy, passing around a sample in a bag so that they’d know what to look for.

It didn’t take long for the large group of campers to break up. Those moving the fastest soon pulled ahead, while Jimmy and Blair kept more to the middle. The kid pointed out every plant and tree that he could name, stopping frequently to take pictures; he was taking a digital photography class and had signed out a camera for the day. The more pictures he took, the farther behind they fell. Jared and the others clearly had no interest in lingering. 

“We’ll see you two poky puppies at lunch,” Roddy called over his shoulder.

“Sorry,” Blair apologized. “We can catch up.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jimmy said, flapping his hand dismissively. “You’re getting good shots.”

He didn’t even mind when the kid started expounding on the various camera functions and where he fell on the manual versus automatic settings debate. After a while, even Blair succumbed to silence, until all that could be heard was birdsong, the hum of insects, and the murmured voices of the campers up ahead.

Jimmy opened his senses up. When he blocked out the voices he could hear animals scrabbling through the underbrush and squirrels chattering over his head. The light filtering through the trees made dappled patterns on the trail, and on his hand when he held it out. He heard the camera click and looked over to find it pointing right at him.

“Hey!” he protested.

“Sorry!” Blair slipped the camera back into its case. “It’s just, you looked so…I don’t know. You’re using your senses, aren’t you?”

“So what if I am?” Jimmy eased off on them. Did he look like an idiot or something?

“I could tell. You get a look when you do. Nothing bad, really!” The kid looked nervous and Jimmy made an effort to reign in his temper. It was stupid, anyway. But then he thought of something else.

“Watch what you say today,” he murmured. “Jared can hear you, if he wants.”

The kid’s eyes went wide as saucers. “There’s another Sentinel at camp?”

“No. Not really. They don’t have all five.”

“ _They_?”

“Jared, Penny and Roddy, from my CSI class. Don’t tell them I told you.” Jimmy felt guilty for having mentioned it, but he wanted to Blair to be aware that he had to be careful. 

“Wow! That’s unbelievable!” Blair trailed after Jimmy. “I bet there’s a lot more almost-Sentinels out there. Do they know about you?”

“Kind of. Just about the sight and hearing. I didn’t tell them the rest.”

“Am I glad I brought my notebook! I’m gonna take some notes at lunch.” The kid reached around and patted his backpack. “Never leave home without it.”

“Just can’t leave the schoolwork behind, can you?” Jimmy teased. “It’s supposed to be a day off, remember?”

“Whatever.”

They walked on in silence for a while, Jimmy making sure they didn’t lose the rest of the group. He could still see the slowest ones, and hear the others. He had no real interest in catching up with them, though. He was comfortable just hanging back with his hike buddy, taking it all in.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” He replayed his breakfast conversation with counselor Ken, much to Blair’s obvious excitement.

“What a lucky break!” he enthused. “How are we going to work the list?”

“Well, we don’t really need to talk to anyone. Just watch, and see who smokes a cigar. Or else I can get close enough to smell it.”

“Your super senses are gonna crack this case, Sherlock,” Blair grinned.

“And you’ll write all about it, right Watson?”

They shared a laugh, and then Jimmy came to an abrupt halt. He looked around, turning in a tight circle. He felt suddenly uneasy.

“What is it?” Blair whispered. “Bears?”

“No.” Jimmy cocked his head, listening. “I thought I heard…someone.”

“Where?”

He listened harder, hard enough to hear caterpillars chewing on leaves. Hard enough to hear footsteps moving swiftly away, off the trail and in the opposite direction of the rest of the campers. He listened so hard he forgot to keep his other senses open, and slipped right into the velvety darkness of a zone out.

*o*o*o*

Jimmy came out of the zone with a jerk and a gasp, his arms and legs quivering from having held the same position for so long. Water was dripping down his head and into his eyes; he looked around, confused.

“What?” he muttered.

Blair caught his arm and helped him sit down. His eyes were a little wild, his face pale and pinched. He looked frightened.

“That was freakin’ scary.” The kid sat down next to him, hands clasped tightly together. He was shaking.

Jimmy’s head started to clear. He ran a hand through his hair to get some of the water out. “Sorry. I’m usually better at not zoning.”

“That was eerie, man. It’s like you just weren’t there anymore. Lights were on but no-one was home.”

“How long was I out?” Jimmy asked. His zone outs lasted an hour, minimum. Why hadn’t anyone come looking for them?

“Almost twenty minutes,” Blair said. “I didn’t know what to do. Talking didn’t help, so I dumped my canteen over your head.”

Jimmy just stared at him. Twenty minutes? That’s all? He kicked himself for not being careful, and for scaring the kid.

“Quick thinking with the water,” he said. Blair gave him a tentative smile. “How come you didn’t call for help?”

The kid shrugged. “Too much to explain. Secret, remember?”

Jimmy gave him a quick, one-armed hug. “Thanks.” His instincts were right. Blair had definitely earned his trust.

“Can you still hear the others?”

He carefully extended his hearing, being sure to open up sight too. “Yeah. We can catch up.”

They both got to their feet, and set a quicker pace than they had before. Jimmy wondered what had happened to his lucky day. Zoning out in the woods wasn’t good, though he supposed it was lucky that Blair was with him. But now something else was coming; he could feel it dancing across his skin, making him anxious and jittery. While he’d been zoned, a storm had been brewing.

“Let’s hurry,” he urged Blair.

“What’s wrong?”

“Storm’s coming.”

The kid looked up, but there wasn’t much sky to see between the tree branches.

“How do you know?” he asked, curious.

“I can smell the rain in the air. And feel the electricity on my skin. It’s going to be a thunderstorm.”

Jimmy hated storms. It was an overload of sensory input, overwhelming him with actual physical pain. He had no control, couldn’t stop the assault once it started. It reminded him of when he’d first gotten his heightened senses, that feeling of helplessness and fear.

“Oh, man. I hate being out in storms,” Blair muttered. He hunched his shoulders as the wind started to pick up. “Must be hard for you.”

“It’s bad,” Jimmy agreed. “Makes all five senses go haywire.”

“Can’t you…I don’t know. Turn them down or something?”

“No. I can back them off so they’re not cranked all the way up, but it doesn’t help much.”

Blair chewed his bottom lip, seemingly pondering the problem. At the first distant rumble of thunder Jimmy tensed and started walking so fast that the kid had to jog to keep up with him. They’d never catch up to the others before the storm broke.

“We should find shelter or something.” Jimmy stopped, looking around almost frantically. There had to be something. Extending his vision, he saw some large rocks and headed toward them.

“Hey, Jimmy, we should stay on the trail. Don’t you think we should stay on the trail?” Blair fretted but stayed close behind his bunkmate.

Jimmy ignored him, a closer peal of thunder making his skin crawl. There! The rocky outcropping offered up a bit of shelter – one slab of stone made a slight overhang and the gap beneath would be just big enough for the two of them.

“Give me your rain poncho,” he said, holding out his hand.

Blair stared at him for a minute, then shrugged out of his backpack and dug through it until he found his camp-issued poncho, which was little more than a garbage bag with a hood. Jimmy shook it out and spread it on the ground for them to sit on.

“I think we should…” the kid started to say, only to be interrupted by a bright flash of lightening. Jimmy ducked under the stone overhang, hand over his eyes. The sky had been steadily darkening as the clouds piled up and now it was almost twilight-dark in the woods.

Jimmy sat with his back pressed against the rocks and his arms wrapped tightly around his knees. He hid his face against his legs, his eyes winched shut. He was only barely aware when the kid sat down beside him. The air was humming with electricity, the noise of the wind a loud cacophony of creaking branches and rustling leaves. Then he felt Blair’s hand on his back, and everything seemed just a little less noisy.

“Do you have an MP3 player?”

Jimmy cracked open one eye. “What?”

“An MP3 player. Do you have one?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you change the volume?” the kid asked, an intent look on his face. “Is it a touch screen or a button?”

“Touch screen.”

There was a bright flash of lightening and a loud crack of thunder that had Jimmy clapping his hands over his ears and moaning. His head was starting to pound. The first drops of rain began to fall.

“Jimmy! Listen. Listen to me.” Blair tugged his hand away from his ear. “Picture the volume control in your head. What does it look like?”

Jimmy didn’t know why the kid was talking about this now, but there was something in his voice. It sounded different, deeper maybe, like what his voice might be after puberty. It made him want to listen.

“Bars. It’s bars. Up to twenty-five.”

Blair rubbed his back. “Okay, see the bars. Only there’s just twelve. See how they’re all lit up? This volume control is for your senses. Can you see it?”

Jimmy nodded. “All red. All the bars are red.”

“Okay. That’s good. Now imagine you’re running your finger down the bars, very slowly. Watch each bar turn yellow. Can you do that? Can you turn everything down to six?”

“I don’t…yeah. Okay.” Jimmy imagined the volume control, saw the bars start to turn yellow. When it got to six, he opened his eyes, amazed. “How did you do that? I feel better!”

Blair grinned. “I didn’t do anything. You did. You controlled your senses.”

Another clap of thunder and then the rain started in earnest. Jimmy still flinched, but it was so much more manageable now.

“How did you know to do that?” he asked the kid. He couldn’t believe he’d been suffering with this for twelve years and one week with Blair had changed everything.

“Naomi is into a lot of weird stuff. We spent a week at this self-actualization retreat in Sedona. Some of it was pretty goofy, but the part about visualization was cool. I figured if anyone could do it, you could.” Blair ran a hand through his curls.

“Now who’s the super hero?” Jimmy laughed. Then he looked up, scowling. The rock shelter wasn’t exactly water tight. He got his own poncho out, tearing it along one seam so he could drape it over both of them. It was a cold rain, and he didn’t mind at all when Blair scooted closer to share some body heat, though in his head he could hear a jeering voice that sounded suspiciously like Ben.

As the storm raged, Jimmy had to periodically visualize the volume dial to keep it steady at six, and Blair helped talk him through it each time. The kid shared stories from some of his trips around the globe while they ate their bagged lunches, and Jimmy regaled him with some of his more exciting football moments.

By the time the storm blew over, things between them had changed. They were more than bunkmates; they were well and truly friends.

*o*o*o*

It was a soggy bunch of campers that rowed back to camp, well into the dinner hour. The unexpected storm had really thrown a wrench into the works, and hiking back down to the beach had taken longer than planned; everything was slick and slippery.

Blair and Jimmy had stayed in their stony shelter until Jimmy heard the others coming back down the trail, calling for them. Ben turned it into quite an exciting rescue tale, but really they all just met up again and went back to camp.

Everyone paid a visit to the nurse, Mr. Finch, just to be on the safe side. Dinner was extended so that they all had time to go back to their cabins and change into dry clothes.

“Sure glad my notebook didn’t get wet,” Blair said. He’d changed quickly and was sitting up on his bed, writing as fast as he could. A lot had happened.

Jimmy just rolled his eyes and opened his footlocker. He paused in the middle of reaching into it, frowning.

“What’s up?” Blair asked, doing his bat impersonation again as he hung over the edge of the bed.

Jimmy glanced over at the other guys, who were horsing around while they changed.

“Someone went through my locker,” he whispered.

“What?”

“This isn’t how I left things.” Jimmy’s locker, like everything else, was very tidy and organized. Someone had gone through his things, putting them back neatly but not where they’d originally been.

“Did you smell anything?” Blair hissed.

It had been faint, just as he opened the footlocker, but Jimmy nodded. “Apple smoke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** Got some action going in this chapter, and Blair finally getting his Guide groove on. And more tantalizing hints about the mystery. I’d like to dedicate the storm scene to Smiles2Go, who asked for that specifically.


	5. Chapter 5

Blair was in a bad mood for almost two full days before Jimmy found out why. It was clear that something was on his mind – he’d been distracted even with Ken’s smoker list to start investigating. Even Ben could tell the kid was off his feed. 

It wasn’t until Jimmy saw Blair glaring at one of the Welcome Parents banners that had gone up all over camp for the upcoming event that everything clicked into place. He hadn’t given Parents Weekend much thought himself; he knew his father wasn’t coming. There was always something going on that was more important – a business meeting, a company dinner, golf with a CEO.

“Your mom’s not coming, is she?” he blurted out. They were walking from Central to the classrooms, having just finished lunch.

Blair hunched his shoulders. “She’s busy. Authenticating some pieces at the Montreal Museum of Modern Art.”

Jimmy could hear the hurt in his friend’s voice and wished there was something he could do. From the stories Blair had shared with him, it seemed like Naomi was the only family he had. Just the two of them traveling together around the world. He got the impression that they were never apart very long, and recalled how Blair had cried himself to sleep his first few nights at camp. He’d never met Mrs. Sandburg, but he really was starting to dislike her.

“My dad won’t be here, either,” Jimmy said with a shrug. “I say we bail on all the family togetherness and do something fun tomorrow.”

“Like what?”

“Ever been fly fishing?”

Blair shook his head, and Jimmy grinned; he patted the kid on the shoulder.

“How about I teach you? They’ve got gear in the boathouse that we can sign out.”

“That’d be great!” Blair replied, and Jimmy was pleased to see the return of his big grin.

“We can head out after breakfast tomorrow. Maybe I can sweet talk Ginger into packing us a lunch.”

Ginger was the head camp cook, and she always made sure Jimmy got the crispiest bacon and thickest burgers. Just another perk of getting to breakfast early and being nice to the staff. He resolved to talk to her at dinner that night.

“Thanks, Jimmy,” Blair said solemnly. They’d reached the point where they had to part ways.

“What’re friends for?”

*o*o*o*

Parents Weekend dawned clear and warm. The parents wouldn’t be coming to camp till noon, but there were a lot more people up and busy than Jimmy normally saw this early. Including his bunkmate, whom he’d had to man handle out of the top bunk.

“’s early.” Blair yawned.

“Early fisherman hooks a fish,” Jimmy quipped. The only response he got was an eyeroll.

Central was just starting to fill with campers by the time they finally arrived, and Blair showed more signs of life after a cup of hot tea.

Ginger supplied them with a very full picnic basket, and Jimmy was glad they didn’t have far to carry it. He’d gotten permission from Hamburger to go a little ways along the beach, away from camp. Despite an offer from Ginger to cook up their catch, Jimmy decided they’d stick with catch and release. He thought Blair would prefer that since he was a vegetarian.

Once they’d signed out the rods and waders from the boathouse, it was only a ten minute walk along the beach to get to the spot that Jimmy had picked out. Most of the other campers would be entertaining parents all day, so it was unlikely that anyone would bother them.

“Do I have to wear this?” Blair complained. Jimmy bit back a laugh. He looked ridiculous; the smallest set of waders was still way too big.

“Yes, you do. Now look, here’s how to tie on the fly.”

He demonstrated using flies he had made during free rec. Once that was accomplished, he showed Blair how to properly cast. The kid was a quick learner and soon the two of them were standing in the lake, rods in hand.

It was quiet out there, just the two of them, and Jimmy felt himself really relax. He loved fishing, and even if this wasn’t the most ideal location it wasn’t without its charms. He especially enjoyed fly fishing because there were strict rules to follow, specific skills to master.

Blair, seemingly understanding that he had to keep his voice down, talked in hushed tones. “How come your dad isn’t here?”

“He works a lot.” Jimmy shrugged. “He’s not big on coming to school stuff.”

Except that wasn’t entirely true. Dad never came to any of his football games, but he almost never missed Steven’s Junior Debate Team meets. It was clear that he valued brains over brawn.

“What’s it like? School, I mean.”

“Haven’t you ever gone?”

Blair shook his head. “I was so upset on my first day of Kindergarten that Naomi thought it would be cruel to send me back.”

“You’re not missing much, trust me.” Jimmy cast his line out again. “There’s way too much drama, especially in high school. I try to stay out of it.”

“I think…hey! Hey, I’ve got one!”

Jimmy helped Blair reel in his first catch, a good-sized trout. The kid was all smiles.

“Hey, get the camera. It’s in my backpack.”

Jimmy pulled it out and took a couple of pictures of Blair holding up the fish. Then he carefully removed the hook and set the trout back in the water.

“Doesn’t that hurt them?” the kid asked, watching his fish swim away.

“Doesn’t seem to.”

They settled back in, casting and twitching their lines. When the silence grew between them again, it was Jimmy who broke it.

“Do you like all that traveling?”

Blair didn’t answer right away, and so he was going to let it go, but after a while the kid started talking, his voice little more than a murmur.

“We’ve seen lots of cool things. And met some really interesting people. There are just so many amazing cultures out there.”

“But?”

Blair sighed. “But. It would be nice to have a house. To live in the same town longer than a month. I’d like to have friends I could actually hang out with, instead of just e-mailing.”

The yearning in his voice was plain and heartbreaking. Jimmy knew that he had all the things that Blair wanted, and that he mostly took them for granted. But the kid had a parent that loved him, a mother who almost never left his side, and for that he was a bit envious. That was far too personal, though, and so revealed something else instead.

“I want to be a cop.”

“You’d be a good one.” The abrupt change in topic didn’t seem to faze Blair.

“I can’t tell my dad. He’d never approve.”

“Then he’s stupid,” the kid said bluntly. “My mom doesn’t much like cops, but she knows they do an important job. And with your senses you’d catch so many criminals! A real, live superhero.”

Jimmy just grinned, and felt something loosen inside him. Blair was right; he’d be perfectly suited to law enforcement. It didn’t matter what his dad thought. Before he could say anything his own line tugged and it was his turn to pull in a trout. It was much smaller than Blair’s and he made a show of pretending to eat it while the kid laughed and took pictures.

“I’ve been thinking about the volume control,” the kid said after the latest catch had been released.

“It’s working really good.”

“Great!” Blair propped his rod against his hip. “But I was thinking there should be a control for each sense separately, instead of just a master switch.”

“Why?” Jimmy asked, even though he’d been thinking along those same lines himself.

“What if something happened and your vision went all out of whack?” He gestured with both hands, almost hitting his friend with the fishing rod. “Oops, sorry. But if you turned it all down, then you wouldn’t be able to use one of your other senses. It could be dangerous for you.”

“I think so too.”

“Really? Cool!”

They spent the remainder of the afternoon fishing, eating, and having Blair walk Jimmy through the steps of visualizing five more volume controls. They assigned each one different colored bars to make it easier. By the time they headed back to camp, the picnic basket was empty and they had a camera full of fish pictures. Jimmy had more control over his senses, and a better understanding of his friend.

*o*o*o*

There was a big dinner in Central that night, with a special buffet set up to impress the parents. Jimmy and Blair sat at their usual table, joined now by Ben’s parents and Kyle’s grandmother.

“Food was never this good when I went to summer camp,” Mr. Berliner, Ben’s father, said. “Lots of creamed chicken and bug juice.”

“With as much as camp costs, the food had _better_ be good.” Kyle’s grandmother patted his cheek. “Only the best for my brilliant boy.

Ben snickered and Kyle flushed, pushing her hand away with a muttered, “Geez, Gram.”

Jimmy and Blair just looked at each other, grinning. He was glad the kid didn’t seem so upset anymore that his mom didn’t come.

They were almost through with dinner when the ice cream machine gave a horrible grinding noise. The Falcon girl standing in front of it jumped back as vanilla ice cream began running out of the nozzle and all over the floor. Miss Miles was on the scene at once, clearly embarrassed that this had happened while the parents were here.

“Willy! I need you in the dining hall. Code 9.” She held a small black radio to her ear.

“ _I’m on it_.” Jimmy could hear the tinny reply.

“Is he the Willy on the list?” he asked Blair.

“One of the maintenance guys. Willy Coeter. Don’t see him much so he must be pretty busy.”

Carefully avoiding the sticky mess at the ice cream machine, Jimmy and Blair carried their trays up to the window. On their way to the door they passed a tall, thin man dressed in blue Dickey pants and a white button-down shirt; _Willy_ was stitched over his shirt pocket in black thread. He headed over to Miss Miles and the two began a hushed conversation. Jimmy could’ve listened in, but he had something more important on his mind.

“That’s him!” he hissed, grabbing hold of Blair’s arm.

“What? Willy?” The kid turned wide eyes on the maintenance man.

“Can’t you smell him? It’s too strong not to be him.”

“Look at his pocket,” Blair said excitedly. Willy turned to study the ice cream machine and there, sticking out of the top of his breast pocket was a box of Philly Blunt Sour Apple cigars.

“We did it! We solved the mystery!”

Jimmy didn’t join in his partner’s celebration. They hadn’t really solved anything. Now they knew that Willy Coeter was the ghost the girl in Falcon saw. And he was the one who’d gone through their footlockers while they were hiking – several other campers had mentioned their things having been rifled through, including Ben and Adam. What he really wanted to know was why.

“Just a little mechanical difficulty.” Miss Miles addressed everyone in the dining hall. “We’ll have it fixed in no time! Meanwhile, once you’ve finished eating please head to the amphitheater. The administrator of Camp In-Ca-Cha will be giving a little speech, and then we’ll have an early bonfire.”

“Oh, man, we need to talk!” Blair looked hopefully at Jimmy, who shook his head.

“Later. Hamburger said the speech thing was mandatory.”

They followed everyone else out into the open-air amphitheater, leaving Willy Coeter behind to clean up the ice cream mess. They chose seats on the aisle near the entrance, so they could leave as soon as it was over.

“Do you think he was looking for stuff to steal?” Blair whispered.

“He didn’t take anything.”

“Oh. Yeah. Still, it’s kind of creepy. What was he doing?”

Jimmy agreed. If he didn’t take anything, though, all they could get him on was snooping. Maybe he’d been looking for something specific, which begged the question of what is was and had he found it. But how could they find out?

Once everyone was seated, Miss Miles stepped up to the podium that had been set up on stage. She tapped the microphone to make sure it was on before speaking.

“Welcome, campers, friends and relatives! We are pleased to have you at Camp In-Ca-Cha for the July program.”

Jimmy scratched absently at his arm. It was too bad that the podium hid Miss Miles’ legs from view; no one else could look that good in a camp uniform. Not even Susie Miller.

“This camp, formerly Camp Crackerjack, was on its way to closing down until it was rescued and revitalized by philanthropist Xander Barnhardt. He had a vision – a camp where exceptional children could be challenged academically while still enjoying an authentic summer camp experience.”

Jimmy was feeling antsy. Something wasn’t right. His skin was itching something awful and he couldn’t stop scratching it.

“What’s up?” Blair whispered.

“Dunno. Itchy.”

The kid pulled his arm and looked it over. “I don’t see a rash or anything. Try turning your touch control down.”

Jimmy envisioned his volume control for touch, turning the bright purple bars down to a more soothing violet. As he did so, the itching lessened significantly. 

“Better?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He was able to stop scratching, but the uneasy feeling remained.

“So, without further ado,” Miss Miles announced. “Mr. Xander Barnhardt!”

Everyone clapped as a man walked on stage. He was middle-aged, fit and dressed casually in khaki slacks and a blue camp shirt. Jimmy found himself using sight to zoom in on this guy, noting that his eyes were green, his smile seemed genuine, and his brown hair was started to gray ever so slightly at the temples.

“Thank you so much for coming!” His voice was warm and deep, and it set Jimmy on edge.

“Your support of this camp and your children is amazing, and greatly appreciated. At Camp In-Ca-Cha, we strive to give your children unique learning opportunities and they rise to the occasion magnificently.”

“Jimmy, what’s wrong?” Blair poked his shoulder and he blinked, looking away from the stage.

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring.”

He ignored the kid, turning his attention back to Xander.

“…my trip to Peru, I was hit with an epiphany. Why not give our children the same benefits of a group learning atmosphere fostered in a natural environment? The tribal chieftain showed me…”

“I don’t feel good,” Jimmy said, closing his eyes. His head was starting to pound, and he had to lower the touch control almost to zero to keep from scratching his own skin off.

“Maybe we should go,” Blair said, sounding worried.

Barnhardt continued. “And I just want to thank you for trusting your children to our care. It is my hope that they will return home with a renewed interest in the world around them, and that their camp experience will be one they would like to repeat again next year. We become a family here at camp, and it’s a privilege to watch your children mature into fine young adults.”

“We’re not going to the bonfire,” the kid decided. “I think you need to lie down.”

On stage, the speech was wrapping up. “If you have any questions, I’ll be here to answer them. Please also join me in twenty minutes at the bonfire, where we’ll enjoy some traditional camp songs and maybe tell a spooky story or two. Thank you.”

There was more clapping, but Jimmy was already up and out of his seat. He practically ran back to the cabin, Blair chasing after him.

“Jimmy, wait! Wait up man!”

The further he got from the amphitheater, the better he felt. Eventually he was able to take a deep breath and force himself to slow down.

“Jeez, what’s the hurry? You’re not gonna puke or something, are you?”

“No. No, I’m feeling okay now.”

“What was that?” Blair asked.

“I don’t know,” Jimmy replied honestly. “That’s never happened before.”

“Do you think you were sensing something from Willy?”

“No.” He opened the door to the cabin, relieved to find it empty. “No. It was that guy. Barnhardt.”

“The camp administrator? But why…”

“I don’t know!” Jimmy snapped. He lay down on his bunk and flung an arm over his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe it’s a Sentinel thing,” the kid mused. “Maybe there’s something in my notes.”

Jimmy heard Blair open his footlocker and move things around. He heard the kid’s heart rate speed up as he muttered unhappily to himself.

“Oh, man. Not good. Definitely not good.”

“What’s not good?” Jimmy asked, certain he didn’t really want to know the answer.

“It’s gone, Jimmy!”

“What’s gone?” But he knew. He already knew.

“My Sentinel notebook. It was here when we got back from fishing and now it’s gone!” There was panic in Blair’s voice. “I didn’t use your name, but what if someone figures it out? What if they find out you’re a Sentinel?”

“Not good,” Jimmy agreed with a sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** Special thanks to my hubby, for helping me tweak this chapter. To his comment, “It’s an awfully long lead-in” I say…so? ::grins:: We’ll be getting some action coming up now, don’t you worry!


	6. Chapter 6

It had been two days since the theft of Blair’s notebook and Jimmy kept waiting for something to happen. Willy Coeter was the number one suspect – there was no doubt in his mind that the maintenance man had been the one who’d previously gone through their footlockers – but he wasn’t exhibiting any suspicious behavior.

“I watched him all during free rec,” Blair said after dinner. “All he did was fix one of the ATVs.”

“I still don’t get why he’d take the notebook.” Jimmy moved his rook. It was game night and they were playing chess.

“Yeah. I mean, Sentinels are a pretty obscure topic.” Blair studied the chessboard. “Maybe Willy didn’t take it. Checkmate.”

Jimmy scowled, resetting the board. “If it was someone else, they’d have made a move by now. Unless they don’t know what they have.”

“Maybe…maybe they threw it away.” The kid looked horrified at the idea.

“Well, unless someone does or says something, we won’t know.”

They both sighed.

Five minutes later Ben stopped by their table, smirking.

“Did you hear about the big excitement in Falcon?” he asked, tossing a pack of playing cards from one hand to the other.

“Found yourself a date to the camp dance?” Jimmy grinned.

“Hilarious, Ellison. No, Blair’s ghost is back.”

“What?!”

Ben looked pleased at the kid’s reaction. “Couple of girls saw it this time. Bunch of counselors are out in the woods right now.”

“Oh, man! Jimmy, we gotta go!”

“Don’t forget your proton pack,” Ben called over his shoulder as he walked away.

“We’ll find him this time!”

Jimmy put a restraining hand on Blair’s shoulder. “If the counselors are looking, whoever’s out there is long gone.”

“They can’t see what you can,” the kid whispered.

“There probably won’t be anything to find.”

“Aw, come on. Aren’t you even a little curious?”

Well, of course he was. But Jimmy didn’t see much use of running out there now. For one thing, the counselors would just send them back to their cabin. And if they did find more evidence of Willy out there, what did it prove? There was no law against standing in the woods and smoking a cigar. He said as much to Blair.

“Fine.” The kid pouted. “Can we at least look around in the morning? There might be a clue.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“Great! Oh. Checkmate.”

*o*o*o*

Jimmy woke up in the middle of the night, confused. Then he heard someone moving around in the dark, and could tell just by listening that it was his bunkmate. He opened up his vision and could make out Blair heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” he hissed, trying not to wake the others. The kid started and put a hand on his chest.

“Jeez, give a guy a heart attack!”

“Blair…”

“Bathroom, okay? Shhh.” With that he slipped out the door.

Jimmy listened to the other guys breathing, and Hamburger snoring from the other room. He’d gotten too accustomed to using Blair’s heartbeat to block out other sounds at night and knew he’d never get back to sleep until his friend returned.

He stretched out his hearing, impressed that he could pick out one heartbeat from so many. And then he frowned, because that heartbeat was nowhere near the bathroom. With a curse he got out of bed, pulling on a sweatshirt over his bare chest and jamming his feet into his sneakers without untying the laces first. He was wearing thin cotton sleep pants and hoped it wasn’t too chilly out.

He snuck out of the cabin and took a moment to orient himself. He raised the volume on sight – no flashlight for Jimmy! – and tuned back into Blair. The kid was moving fast, right towards the woods.

Jimmy crossed the green at a run, going between two of the Falcon cabins. As he got closer to the treeline he could see someone moving, and hear the sounds of a second person crashing through the undergrowth. Now instead of just being annoyed he was anxious, and put on speed.

“Blair! Wait!” He whispered as loudly as he could. He didn’t want to wake anyone up and get in trouble for being out so late. “Stop!”

The kid was in the woods now, his flashlight bobbing as he gave chase, when Jimmy finally caught up with him.

“What are you doing?” he gasped, out of breath. One hand was locked around the kid’s wrist to keep him in place.

“Let go!” Blair twisted but he wasn’t strong enough to pull free. “He’s getting away!”

“Are you nuts? You can’t go chasing people in the dark! In the woods! You wanna get lost or something?”

“I saw him, Jimmy. Watching us. We have to follow him!”

“No way.” Jimmy shook his head. “This guy could be dangerous. And there’s nothing we can do if he wants to spend his nights here staring at a bunch of cabins.”

This time when Blair jerked his arm he was able to pull free. He looked furious.

“Willy took my notebook, I know he did. Let’s track him! I bet he’s got a hideout or something in there somewhere.”

“He has his own cabin, why would he need a hideout? Could you be logical for a second, please?”

“Some cop you are.” Blair scowled. “What about tailing a suspect? Following a lead?”

Jimmy clenched his fists, taking that crack personally. “Cops don’t tail suspects without backup and a weapon, brainiac.”

“Oh, so what? Now he’s some kind of homicidal maniac?”

“We don’t know what he is. Which is kind of the point. And we’re not going to find out in the middle of the night.” He couldn’t believe the kid was giving him so much attitude about this. And he didn’t like the feeling of anxiety that assailed him when he thought of Blair confronting Willy Coeter in the dark woods with only his flashlight for protection.

“Well, we’ve lost him now.” Blair stomped off in the direction of the cabins. “I hope you’re happy, Mr. By-the-book.”

“Maybe you should’ve stayed in Falcon with the other little kids,” Jimmy snapped back.

“You can be a real jerk, you know that?” The kid kept walking, his shoulders hunched. Jimmy watched him go, feeling both angry and guilty. He shouldn’t have said that, but Blair was being unreasonable. It had been a mistake, playing at being detectives; he was taking it much too seriously.

With a sigh he got moving. Blair was already in the top bunk and pretending to be asleep by the time he got back. Jimmy wasn’t fooled, but he didn’t want to talk anymore tonight either. He yawned and rolled into bed, ignoring the waves of resentment he could feel from above. He automatically tuned into Blair’s heartbeat, which blocked everything else out, and fell asleep almost immediately.

*o*o*o*

Feeling unsettled and still a bit angry the following day, Jimmy hurried through both breakfast and lunch and got to all his classes early so he wouldn’t have to deal with Blair. He felt foolish doing it. The kid was his friend and he was sure they could work things out; just not right now.

Roddy was the first one in his group to get to CSI class, and he was all abuzz about the big ghost hunt.

“Not much of a ghost,” he said. “Is that all it does, just stand around?”

“It’s not a ghost, you idiot,” Jared said, sliding into his seat. “Counselors don’t do a search like that for a ghost.”

“They do if they want a bunch of scared girls to go to sleep,” Roddy replied.

“Did they find anything?” Jimmy asked.

“Like what? Ghostly footprints?”

“Be serious!” Jared admonished. “There could be some crazy pervert out there.”

“Leatherface crazy? Or toothless inbred hillbilly crazy?” Roddy joked. “If I hear banjos, I’m outta here.”

“Hey, guys.” Penny ducked into class just ahead of Mr. Doyle.

“You’re late,” Roddy observed.

“Can’t put anything over on you,” Jared muttered.

“Okay, people, listen up!” Mr. Doyle clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, there was an incident last night out behind Falcon. I want to advise all of you to be careful. If there’s someone watching the camp – and that hasn’t been confirmed – you are to stay in groups at all times, especially after dark.”

“What if it’s a ghost?” someone called out. Everyone laughed.

“Find me proof and we’ll talk,” Mr. Doyle said. “And you’ll have a chance to do just that. This is the perfect opportunity to test your skills in the field. Each group is to pack a kit. In five minutes we’ll head over to the scene and see what we can discover.”

“I’m on it,” Jared said, heading for the shelves that contained the CSI kit equipment.

“This is so cool!” Penny ran a hand through her spiky hair. “My counselor gave us all a speech this morning about staying together. Since only girls have seen this guy…”

“Ghost!” Roddy interjected.

“…or whatever, they think he might be some kind of creepy stalker.”

“You’re way too excited about that,” Jimmy said, shaking his head. “Shouldn’t you be scared or worried or something?”

“Nope.” Penny grinned. “Cause our super team is gonna find the clue that nails this guy.”

“We need a better name that that,” Roddy said thoughtfully. “Something like Team Alpha Super Awesome Cool Dynamite Wolf Squadron.”

“You watch too much TV,” Jared said, returning with the field kit.

“Yes I do,” was the proud response.

“Okay, class.” Mr. Doyle stood by the door. “Follow me and stay together. No side trips to the dining hall or chatting with friends in other classes. You’re still on my time.”

The class headed out, everyone talking excitedly. They followed the path around the amphitheater, then cut up past the Alpaca cabins to Falcon. Jimmy decided this field trip was good; he could use it to break the ice with Blair. After all, he _had_ promised to go looking for clues. Only now he’d have some extra super senses to help him.

When they reached the area where Willy had been seen, Jimmy saw that crime scene tape had been put up, marking off an area of roughly fifty feet. Inside that area was more tape, creating smaller grids.

“I want each group to pick a grid and work it, using the items in your kit as well as your own senses. Document everything; you never know what’s going to be important to an investigation.”

Jimmy’s group selected the farthest grid on the left, carefully examining the ground before stepping over the tape.

“We’ve got a camera,” Jared said, pulling a little point and shoot from the bag. “Who wants to be the photographer?”

“I will,” Roddy volunteered. “My super sense won’t be much use.”

Naturally, he started right in taking pictures of them. Jimmy rolled his eyes and got to work, dialing up sight to examine the area inside the grid. He also turned up hearing just in case one of the other groups found something.

“You guys smell anything?” Penny asked. Jared grimaced.

“Yeah. Skunk’s gone through there recently.”

“I’d rather run into Leatherface than a skunk,” Roddy said. “I’ve heard that’s a stink that stays with you.”

“You got anything, Jimmy?”

He shook his head. “Half a candy wrapper and some ants.”

“There should be a clue.” Penny looked disappointed. “I was sure we’d find something.”

“Like what?” Jared asked, sitting back on his heels. “A signed confession?”

Jimmy couldn’t help but grin. He’d been through all this before. He knew there wouldn’t be anything to find. Still, they had to be thorough.

A few minutes later, while they logged in several leaves and an earthworm, Hamburger came hurrying over to confer with Mr. Doyle.

“Jimmy!” Mr. Doyle called. “A minute, please?”

The others looked at him and he shrugged. He wiped his hands on his shorts and crossed back over the crime scene tape.

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen Blair today?” Hamburger asked without preamble. Jimmy immediately tensed. Something was wrong.

“No. I mean, he was still in bed when I went to breakfast. Why?”

“He hasn’t shown up for any of his classes today,” Hamburger said, looking worried. “I thought maybe he’d tell you if he was skipping.”

“He wouldn’t skip classes,” Jimmy said tersely. 

“Yeah. I know.” Hamburger sighed and unclipped the portable radio from his belt. “He hasn’t seen Blair.”

_“Copy that. Head back to Central.”_

“Let me come!” Jimmy could feel panic building up, making his skin flush. “I can help look for him.”

Hamburger gave him a sympathetic look. “Let the counselors handle it. We’re trained for this kind of thing.”

Jimmy watched him leave, feeling helpless. Something had happened to Blair, and he’d been too busy avoiding him to even notice.

“Back to your group,” Mr. Doyle said kindly. “They’ll find him.”

Jimmy just nodded, avoiding the curious stares of his classmates as he went back to his grid. Penny immediately gave him a hug.

“They’ll find Blair, I know they will!”

He wasn’t surprised that they knew. In Jared’s position he’d have listened in too. He looked into the woods, certain that Blair had gone in there; searching for Willy Coeter by himself.

“Can I tell you guys something?” Jimmy asked. He needed help, and there was no-one else at camp he could trust. Not with something this important. In hushed tones he told them about how he and Blair had followed the clues to Willy. He told them about the stolen notebook, and how Blair had helped him with his senses. He told them about the fight, guilt eating away at him.

“So you think he went in the woods to track Willy to his hideout? Kid’s got balls.” Jared shook his head. “Do you think he just got lost?”

Jimmy shrugged. “Anything could have happened.” His mind conjured up images of Blair lying at the bottom of a cliff, or being gnawed on by a bear.

“We’ll have a better chance of finding him,” Penny said. “You can really hear his heartbeat?”

“Yeah. It’s how I found him last night. But he must be…I don’t know. Out of range.” Or something, but he didn’t want to think about that.

“We all have free rec next, right?” Roddy asked. “That would be a good time to slip away.”

“It’s not gonna be that easy.” Jared packed up the field kit. “If one camper is missing, they’re going to crack down on all of us.”

“Be easier for just me,” Jimmy said.

“No way!” Penny glared at him, hands on her hips. “You need our help.”

“They can’t watch us all the time,” Jared pointed out. “If we go after everyone else is asleep, we’ll have more time to search on our own before we’re missed.”

Jimmy hated the idea of waiting, but he knew Jared was right. He needed their help, and the counselors would just turn them away. And it wasn’t like he could go to Miss Miles and accuse Willy Coeter, not without explaining.

“One a.m. should do it, don’t you think?” Penny looked at her watch. “I know everyone in my cabin will be asleep by then.”

“ _I’ll_ be asleep by then.” 

“Shut up, Roddy.”

“Thanks,” Jimmy said quietly. He hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to cultivate friendships with these guys and still they were helping him. It meant a lot.

“We’ll find him,” Jared promised. Jimmy hoped that was true.

*o*o*o*

Jimmy wanted to skip dinner, but all the campers had to stay together as Jared predicted. He picked at his chicken, ignoring his cabinmates as they discussed what had become of Blair. A quick check of the cabin had shown that the kid had taken only his canteen, leaving everything else behind. It had been hours and he was out there without any food or supplies.

On his way back from returning his mostly-untouched tray, Jimmy was waylaid by Miss Miles. Gone was the perky grin, replaced by a grim look of concern.

“Jimmy? Mr. Barnhardt would like to talk to you.”

He could feel a headache starting behind his eyes. He followed Miss Miles out of Central and over to the Admin building, dialing down his senses as he went. This was the last thing he needed. His skin started to itch almost as soon as they entered Admin.

Xander Barnhardt’s office occupied the whole second floor and was decorated in a tasteful woodsy style, complete with Adirondack chairs and a table made from a massive, oblong piece of polished tree trunk that still had a ring of bark around it.

The man himself rose from his seat behind the table and gestured for Jimmy to sit in one of the two plush chairs available for guests.

“Thank you, Miss Miles,” Mr. Barnhardt said with a dismissive wave. Jimmy felt trapped as soon as the door closed.

“I appreciate you coming, James. I thought, in light of recent events, we should talk.”

“Is this about Blair?” Jimmy asked, lowering his volume dials as far as they would go. Whatever it was about this guy that set his skin crawling was so much worse in closer proximity.

“I want you to know we’re doing all we can to find him.” Mr. Barnhardt leaned back in his chair, fingers tented. “Unfortunately, he’s not the first camper to run away from here.”

“He didn’t run away!” Jimmy said hotly before remembering his manners. “Sir.”

“It’s not unusual for a boy like Blair, someone who doesn’t fit in with his peers. It’s especially difficult for the more gifted children, who can be so socially stunted. I understand you’re his only friend here.”

“Blair _didn’t_ run away. All of his things are still in the cabin. I checked.”

“Of course you did.” Mr. Barnhardt smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I hear you’re doing very well in the Crime Scene class. Mr. Doyle says good things about you.”

“Sir, about Blair…”

The camp administrator moved forward, putting his elbows on the glossy table top. “I hate to think of him out there on his own, such a young boy. If he told you… _anything_ …it would be beneficial for you to share it with me, James.”

Jimmy didn’t like the way this conversation was going. There was something oddly menacing about Mr. Barnhardt, even though he’d done nothing overtly threatening. There was a tone to his voice that wasn’t quite right, and his assertion that Blair ran away was incredibly frustrating.

“He didn’t tell me anything because he didn’t run away, Sir. I think he’s lost in the woods.”

“Oh? Why would young Mr. Sandburg be out in the woods? That’s restricted to campers without counselor supervision.” Mr. Barnhardt’s gaze was piercing.

“I don’t know,” Jimmy lied. He was not even slightly encouraged to share what he knew with this man. Even with the volume dials turned way down it was all he could do to sit still and not try to crawl out of his own skin.

“Why the woods, James? It’s just as likely that Blair went for a swim or took a boat out. I hear he has some skill at kayaking. Of course, that’s why we insist that all water sports be done in pairs; things can happen to even the most adept swimmers. Drowning is a terrible way to die.”

Jimmy was finding it suddenly hard to breathe. He knew Blair had gone into the woods after Willy Coeter, but now his mind gave him a terrible vision of the kid floating face down in the lake. He wished Mr. Barnhardt would stop talking, would let him go. It sounded like he _wanted_ something bad to happen to Blair.

“If you’re holding anything back, James, you could be putting your friend at risk.”

“I don’t know anything,” Jimmy said again. “May I please go?”

Mr. Barnhardt waved his hand at the door. “Of course. Just remember, James. You’re the only one who can help us help Blair.”

“Yes, Sir.” Jimmy made a quick exit and fairly ran for the stairs. When he got outside he took several deep, gasping breaths. He was even more afraid for Blair now. Did Mr. Barnhardt know something? He certainly thought Jimmy did. There was one thing he’d been absolutely correct about, though.

Jimmy was the only one who could help Blair now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** I struggled a bit with that last scene. I wanted Xander Barnhardt to be menacing, but in a friendly sort of way. If that makes any sense, LOL! Special thanks to my hubby, who helped me with this. You rock!
> 
> Will Jimmy and his super-sense Scooby Gang be able to find Blair? Tune in next chapter to find out!


	7. Chapter 7

Waiting for the designated meeting time with the others was driving Jimmy crazy. He kept hoping that Blair would come stumbling back to camp with a story about getting lost, and they’d all have a laugh about it. What actually happened was that all evening activities, including the bonfire, were cancelled and replaced by a lengthy safety presentation in the amphitheater. 

Jimmy’s cabinmates were unusually reserved as they got ready for bed. Even Ben seemed concerned that the kid was still missing.

“Some of the counselors say he took off,” Kyle reported.

“No way.” Gary climbed up into his bunk. “He’s not the kind of kid who’d do that.”

“It’s my fault,” Ben said morosely, sitting on his footlocker.

“How’s that?” Jimmy asked, curious.

“I told him about the ghost, egged him on. Should’ve known he’d go out looking for it.” Ben sounded genuinely distressed. “He’s not a bad kid. I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

The other guys exchanged surprised glances.

“He’d have gone anyway,” Jimmy said, taking pity on him. “Everyone was talking about it. I even told him not to, but he went anyway.”

Ben shot him a grateful look.

“Maybe we could talk to Hamburger about joining in the search tomorrow,” Adam suggested. “Makes sense to have more eyes out there.”

“They should definitely get _you_ out there,” Kyle said to Jimmy. “The shots you get in archery, you must really have an eagle eye.”

“I already asked. He said no.”

“Yeah, well, it’s more serious now. Don’t you think?” Adam leaned against the wall by the door. “If we all ask, maybe it’ll change his mind.”

But when Hamburger came in later, the answer was still no. Jimmy hadn’t expected any different, but Ben was really upset.

“Why can’t we help? We can look just as good as you!”

“We don’t want anyone else getting lost.” Hamburger put up his hands in a placating gesture. “Mr. Barnhardt is making arrangements to have Search and Rescue come out tomorrow.”

“Where are they gonna look?” Jimmy asked.

“They’re focusing on the lake and the shoreline.”

“What the hell for?” Ben exclaimed. “He went into the woods, not for some damn boat ride!”

“There’s a kayak missing from the boathouse, so that’s our best lead. Did you see him go into the woods? Any of you?”

They hadn’t and Jimmy knew it didn’t matter anyway. Whatever Barnhardt was up to, it was clear that he was going out of his way to keep Blair from being found. He had a moment to doubt his own ability to find his friend, but quickly squashed that feeling. The kid had helped him during the storm, and he had every intention of returning the favor.

“Search and Rescue knows what they’re doing, guys,” Hamburger said. “Go to sleep.”

There was lots of grumbling, but what could they do? Jimmy wished he could tell them about his plan, but someone would want to come along and they’d just be in the way. _Leave it to the professionals_ , he thought wryly.

*o*o*o*

Jimmy thought he’d be the first one there, sliding out the door at exactly one a.m., but Penny was already waiting. She had a pink hoodie and pink fingerless gloves on, and a pair of light blue sweatpants.

“You look like cotton candy,” he whispered.

“Very funny,” she replied. “I brought some first aid stuff. Just in case.”

Jimmy nodded. He’d filled his canteen and stuffed a couple granola bars in the back pocket of his jeans. Whatever it was that Blair had gotten himself into, he was probably starving.

“Jared went to get Roddy. Make sure he didn’t fall asleep.”

Which clearly was the case when they both arrived. Roddy, wearing his camp shorts and a sweatshirt, was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Jared, decked out in flannel pants and a thermal shirt, was bright-eyed and ready to go.

“I brought an extra flashlight,” he said. “For the kid.”

Penny gestured across the green to the Falcon cabins. “Show us where he went.”

Thus instructed, Jimmy led the way. The moon was almost full, which made it easier to see, but Jared and Roddy both clicked on their flashlights as soon as they were past the cabins. Jimmy was thankful for the heightened vision, which kept his hands free. Just in case.

Stepping over the crime scene tape, he led the others a few feet into the woods to the spot where he’d had his fight with Blair. He wished he’d been able to say something to keep the kid from taking such a risk, instead of getting his ire up and hurting his feelings.

“This is the direction he was heading last night.”

“There’s a trail here,” Penny said, looking around carefully.

“If you say so.” Roddy sounded doubtful.

Jimmy could see it too, once Penny pointed it out. It was barely a trail, nothing like the wide, carefully marked one they’d hiked, but someone was using it enough to leave an impression behind.

“Ow! Roddy!” Penny clapped her hands to her face, covering her eyes. Roddy immediately lowered the flashlight he’d inadvertently shined on her.

“Sorry!”

“Okay,” Jimmy decided. “Penny and I will take the lead. You guys follow behind. And keep those flashlights pointed down!”

He knew from experience how much it hurt getting light shined in your eyes when you had vision dialed all the way up.

“You okay, Penny?”

She nodded. “Just give me a minute.”

“I’ll keep my hearing turned up,” Jared said. “I hear anything, you’ll know.”

“Don’t see how I’m gonna be much help,” Roddy said. “Unless you want me to lick some rocks.”

“You’re the comic relief,” Penny replied, carefully lowering her hands and blinking rapidly.

“If Blair’s hurt or something, we’ll need your help getting him out of the woods.” Jimmy kept telling himself that Blair was lost, not injured, but he was believing it less and less. “Besides, if something happens to make our senses go wonky, you’ll be the one in charge.”

“Do you think Willy has him?” Jared asked.

“Maybe.” Jimmy didn’t want to think about that, either. There was no good reason for the maintenance man to have snatched the kid, but there were plenty of bad reasons.

“Let’s get going.” Penny rubbed at her eyes once more before turning and heading up the trail.

“And keep your voices down,” Jared warned. “Or you’ll blow out my eardrums.”

They started walking in silence, Jimmy keeping the pace slow so they wouldn’t miss anything. The woods were full of night noises – chirping insects, tree frogs, the occasional hoot of an owl, and rustling noises as nocturnal animals made their rounds. With his hearing turned up, he could also hear the high-pitched cries of bats. He tried to tune into Blair’s heartbeat, but there wasn’t even a faint thump.

They’d been carefully making their way along the trail for almost half an hour before Roddy cracked under the pressure of keeping quiet. 

“Is there anything? We’ve been walking forever!”

Jimmy bit back the sarcastic comment that was on the tip of his tongue, reminding himself that Roddy was the only one of them not able to use his senses to search; there was only so much he could do in the dark and it had to be frustrating.

“Were you expecting a trail of breadcrumbs?” Jared asked. “Kid didn’t know he’d be getting lost.”

The four of them stopped walking. Penny stretched and rubbed at her temples. “I’m getting a headache from looking so hard.”

Jimmy was getting one, too. He dialed down everything for a minute, giving his senses a break. He was also feeling disheartened.

“I can’t find a sign of him anywhere.”

“Look at it this way,” Roddy said with a shrug. “There’s no sign he ran into any trouble.”

Trust Roddy to find the silver lining. Still, Jimmy couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful about that, and he smiled.

“It’s kind of nice out here,” Penny remarked. “You could almost feel you’re all alone on a deserted island or something.”

“Too much pine,” Jared said, wrinkling his nose. “Jimmy, do you think Blair could teach me that volume thing?”

“Me, too,” Roddy joined in. “It would sure make eating less difficult.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he would.” Jimmy couldn’t help feeling a bit of pride. He thought of something Blair had mentioned, a throwaway remark about Sentinels having someone to help them. A Guide. And in that moment he realized that was what the kid was for him. Sure, Bud had been doing the job, but now it seemed like he’d just been filling in. How else could the kid have pulled him out of a zone so fast? The urge to find Blair became suddenly overwhelming.

“Let’s go,” he said abruptly.

“You got something?” Jared asked.

“No. I just…we need to go.”

The others exchanged a look, but followed without protest. Jimmy turned his volume back up, but a few minutes later it was Jared that found the first sign that they were on the right trail.

“Hold up!” he called. Jimmy looked back at him expectantly. 

“What is it?” Penny asked.

Jared took a deep breath, turning in a slow circle. “Pretty sure it’s those cigars.”

Jimmy moved to where Jared was standing and he smelled it right away; the familiar scent of apple tobacco. A close examination of the ground turned up a half-smoked cigar. It looked fairly fresh.

“That guy is a forest fire waiting to happen.” Roddy used his flashlight to sweep the area around them. “Hey, look at this.”

There were signs of a struggle here. The leaves and pine needles on the ground were all scuffed up, and there were broken plant leaves and snapped twigs over a large area. It was what Jimmy had been afraid they’d find.

“There’s a pack of gum.” Penny bent down and picked it up. Big Red.

“That’s Blair’s,” he said numbly. Willy had the kid. There was no doubt in his mind. But what was he doing with him?

“Can’t be far,” Jared said. “You don’t go on a long hike with a hostage. They had to walk somewhere close by.”

Jimmy pulled himself together. “Okay. Keep your voices down and your ears open.”

They continued following the trail, trying now to be stealthier. Jimmy listened as hard as he could and was finally rewarded with the familiar sound of Blair’s heartbeat. It was racing, but he’d never been so happy to hear anything in his whole life. His friend – his _Guide_ – was still alive!

*o*o*o*

Jimmy had really been tuned into Blair – it was another twenty minutes before they came to Willy’s hideout. It had probably once been a hunting cabin but now was in an advanced state of decay. The roof was half caved in, there were wide spaces between the wall boards, and the whole structure looked like one stiff wind would blow it over.

Off to one side was an overgrown woodpile, and that’s where Jimmy and the others took cover. From that vantage point they could see the one window on the side of the cabin, a weak, flickering light illuminating the broken window. Jimmy could smell the hot wax of lit candles. He stretched out his hearing. Willy was definitely in there with Blair – he could hear them both breathing. The kid was sniffling as well; probably trying not to cry. Jimmy’s hands clenched into fists.

_We’re not leaving till you answer me!_ Willy’s voice seemed shockingly loud in the night; Jared winced.

_I know you know. It’s all over this damn thing_. There was a thud as something hit the floor. Blair’s notebook?

_Who’s the Sentinel_? Willy sounded desperate and frustrated, not a good combination.

_It’s just a story_.

_You think I’m stupid_? There was the sound of a slap and a choked-off cry from the kid. Jimmy and Jared shared a look of mutual rage.

“What’s going on?” Roddy hissed. Jimmy forgot that he couldn’t hear everything so clearly.

“He’s slapping the kid around,” Jared replied darkly. “Wants to know who the Sentinel is.”

Penny gasped in dismay. Jimmy was right there with her. Willy had probably been questioning Blair all day, keeping him here, maybe without food or water. The kid had to be scared out of his wits, yet he hadn’t told Jimmy’s secret. Jared was right; the kid had balls.

_You don’t tell me, you stay here. Permanently._

There was no response from Blair, and from the sounds of splintering wood it was likely that Willy took his frustration out on a piece of furniture.

“What’s the plan?” Penny asked. She looked scared but determined. Jimmy thought for a moment, trying to work out something that had the least likely result of getting someone hurt.

“How about this?” he said finally. “Penny can see the best in the dark, so she goes back to camp and gets help. Jared, you and Roddy lure Willy out of the cabin. Jared, keep your hearing all the way up. If you hear anything that sounds like a weapon, get out of there as fast as you can.”

“What’re _you_ gonna do?” Penny asked.

“I’m gonna rescue Blair.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I needed to cut if off before the big action sequence. Big rescue is coming up, so stay tuned!


	8. Chapter 8

Once agreed upon, Jimmy’s plan was put into action right away. Penny was gone in a flash; he knew she’d never make it back in time, but he was glad she’d be out of the way in case things went south with Willy. So what if that sounded sexist? Besides, without knowing how things were going to go it never hurt to have backup.

Roddy and Jared quietly circled the cabin until they were opposite the front door, which was buckled and warped but still somehow closed. They hunkered down using trees as cover while they waited for Jimmy’s signal, each clutching a length of firewood.

Jimmy crept to the the cabin, dialing up his vision as he searched for a way through the wall. After a moment he found it – an extra wide gap where the boards seemed fairly rotted. He could hear Blair inside, repeating two words over and over under his breath.

_Please come. Please come._

“I’m here,” Jimmy whispered in reply, knowing he wouldn’t be heard. A fierce wave of protectiveness rose up inside him. Blair was _his_ and he wasn’t leaving without him. It was kind of scary, the power behind the emotion, and he wondered if it was some kind of Sentinel thing.

He gave the boards a preliminary tug and found they offered a bit more resistance than he’d expected. Time for a distraction. He gave a long, low whistle and the response was immediate. Jared and Roddy started banging their pieces of firewood against the trees and shouting. Jimmy tried to focus his hearing on what was happening inside the cabin.

_One word and you’re dead_.

Willy was taking the bait; the sound of his footsteps could be heard moving swiftly to the door. Under cover of all the noise, Jimmy started tugging at the boards in earnest. One broke off with a snap, while the end of another crumbled in a spongy mess.

“Jimmy?” Blair’s whisper floated out through the widening hole.

“Have you out in a sec, Chief,” he replied with forced cheerfulness. There was too much noise; he was having trouble distinguishing Willy’s movements.

“I can fit,” the kid said, his pale and pinched face appearing at the hole. Jimmy backed up, eyes narrowing when he saw bruises on Blair’s face, and blood on his chin from a split lip.

“Jared, where are you guys?” Jimmy whispered, watching the kid wriggle through the hole like a worm.

“Heading back to camp,” came the panting reply. “I think he’s following us.”

“I’ve got Blair. Meet you back at Jaguar.”

The kid finally emerged, looking bedraggled and tired. But his grin lit up his dirt-streaked face.

“Am I ever glad to see _you_!”

“You okay?” Jimmy had never been angrier at anyone in his life, had never wanted to hurt someone as much as he did the man who had hurt his friend.

Blair shrugged a bit stiffly. “Fine.”

There was an awkward moment when Jimmy wasn’t sure if he should hug the kid or something, and then Jared’s voice caught his attention.

“Jimmy! We lost him! He probably doubled back.”

“Okay, we’re coming. Keep your eyes open.”

“Who are you talking to?” Blair asked.

“Jared and Roddy. Part of your rescue team.” Jimmy grinned and pulled the kid to his feet.

“Wow, a whole team?”

“Penny too. She’s on her way to camp to bring back some help.”

Jimmy wanted to say more, tell the kid he was sorry about fighting with him and how glad he was to have found him in one piece. But Willy came around the corner of the cabin with a shouted “Hey!” and they were out of time.

“Run!” He pushed Blair ahead of him; the boy could run like the wind when properly motivated.

“You’re one of them!” Willy yelled as he gave chase. He had yet to produce a weapon but Jimmy knew that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

“I didn’t tell,” Blair gasped, shooting a quick look over his shoulder.

“I know. Just run!”

They were young, and fast, but neither of them had a lot of practice running through the woods, particularly in the dark without a trail to follow. Exposed roots tripped them, brambles and bushes tugged at their clothing, hampering their escape. Meanwhile, Willy seemed to be running like a deer, leaping nimbly over whatever obstacles got in his way thanks in part to the small flashlight he held in one hand. Jimmy was getting a headache from keeping his hearing cranked up, but he didn’t want any surprises while his back was turned.

“Whoa!” Blair came to an abrupt stop and Jimmy nearly plowed into him. The ground just past their feet fell away in a steep, rocky incline that looked like an alien landscape bathed in the silvery light of the moon. The bottom, if in fact there was one, was shrouded in shadow.

That stop cost them. Before Jimmy could get Blair moving again, Willy was on them. The best he could do was push the kid out of the way.

“You’re coming with me,” Willy said, a calculating look in his eye.

“We’re going back to camp.” Jimmy stood his ground. “Leave us alone.”

“Are you the Sentinel? Do you know how much you’re worth?” He moved slowly forward, his gaze fixed on the boy in front of him. “Are you the one in his notebook?”

Jimmy tried to remember what he’d learned in self-defense class, keeping his center of gravity low and watching his opponent for telegraphed movements. He should’ve been watching the kid.

“Leave him alone!” Blair roared, coming at Willy with a thick branch. He hit the maintenance man across the back of the legs, causing him to stagger. Before Jimmy could make a move, Willy whirled and grabbed the branch, yanking Blair closer.

Jimmy lowered his head and went in for a tackle. He caught Willy around the waist and all three of them went down in a bone-jarring heap. He grappled with the older man, giving Blair a chance to get clear, and took an elbow to the temple which made the pain in his head blossom and dark spots dance before his eyes.

“You’re coming with me,” Willy grunted.

“Shut. Up.” Jimmy said through gritted teeth. This guy was creeping him out. He punched Willy in the face, wincing at the pain that flared in his knuckles. He scrambled backwards, but Willy caught his ankle.

“Get off him!” The kid jumped on Willy’s back, only to be thrown off and into a tree; the crack as his head knocked against it was incredibly loud. Jimmy’s vision went red and he lost a couple of minutes in a rage-fueled haze of thrown punches and bloody knuckles. He was dimly aware that they were moving, rolling through the pine needles, and then the kid’s voice snapped him back to reality.

“Jimmy!” Blair cried out. It was the only warning he had before he and Willy rolled off the edge of the embankment.

Jimmy scrabbled for purchase, his hands getting bloodied in the process. Willy lost his grip and shot down the incline like a runaway train until he fetched up against something with a sickening snap. Jimmy didn’t dare turn around, trying to stop his own downward momentum. When his fingers brushed an exposed length of tree root, he surged upward and grabbed it with one hand, painfully jerking his shoulder as he came to an abrupt halt.

“Jimmy!” Blair’s face appeared over the edge, his eyes wide. Blood was oozing from a cut on his forehead.

“I’m okay.”

“Can you climb up?”

“Dunno.” Jimmy tried to plant his feet, but the rocks were slippery with moss. He grunted as his shoulder tugged painfully. He swung his other hand up so that both were clutching the root.

“Hold on!” Blair disappeared and Jimmy felt a burst of panic. He wasn’t sure how long he could hang there. His palms were burning and the blood was making his grip a bit tenuous. He took a quick look behind him, then just as quickly squinched his eyes shut. Willy’s fall had been broken by a large boulder. He was twisted in an unnatural angle, his eyes wide and staring; dead eyes. Jimmy’s stomach lurched but he clenched his jaw and forced down the bile that was rising up in his throat. He’d never seen a dead body before, much less been responsible for one.

“Hey!” Blair was back, dangling over the edge of the embankment and holding out his hand. The other was grasping one end of the hemp belt he’d woven in crafts class; the other end was presumably anchored to something.

“Grab my hand!” The kid stretched as far as he could, fingers waggling.

Jimmy took a deep breath, then reached up with his good arm. His fingers brushed Blair’s before his arm swung away.

“Almost had you,” Blair said encouragingly. “Try again!”

Jimmy tried, feet fighting for purchase, but still Blair remained frustratingly beyond reach. He grabbed hold of the root again. His grip was loosening.

“Please,” Blair whispered. His eyes gleamed with tears.

“Go get help,” Jimmy said. He didn’t want the kid to see him fall.

Blair shook his head stubbornly. He let go of the belt and Jimmy held his breath as the kid started to inch his way closer. He wanted to tell him to go back, but he was too afraid of falling. And he knew it wouldn’t matter what he said; the Guide was coming to help his Sentinel.

“Grab my hand,” Blair said, and this time he was able to wrap his fingers around Jimmy’s. The kid let out a breath, clearly relieved, but in the next second his eyes went wide as saucers as his feet began to slip. His free arm started to pinwheel and Jimmy closed his eyes. He didn’t know if he could hold on to the root _and_ the kid. The thought of Blair lying down there in the shadows, broken, was too painful to even consider. He’d have to hold on, because there was no other choice.

And then, inexplicably, Jimmy could feel Blair tugging him upward. The stress and the pain and the headache were clearly blocking his other senses – when he opened his eyes he saw Jared and Roddy forming a human chain over the side of the embankment. Roddy had hold of Blair’s arm at the elbow, tugging them both back up.

Jimmy stumbled up over the edge and stood there for a moment on shaky legs before sinking down to sit with his back against the same tree that had given him a lifeline to hold onto. Now that it was all over he found it hard to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat from his face with one arm, struggling to get himself under control. His bloody hands curled protectively in on themselves, sore and swollen and fairly useless.

“Use the volume controls,” Blair said, materializing at his side. His whole body was quivering like a live wire, but his voice was low and steady. “See the dials in your head, and turn them down.”

Jimmy focused on the kid’s voice and the soothing rhythm of his heartbeat, visualizing the different colored volume controls as Blair talked him through it. In no time he’d turned the pain levels down and was feeling more in control. Without thinking about it, or worrying what his friends would say, he pulled Blair into a hug so that the kid was sitting practically in his lap.

The boy clutched him back tightly, and Jimmy could feel warm tears against his neck.

“You saved me,” Jimmy whispered.

“You saved me first.”

“Hey,” Roddy called from the embankment. “What about Willy?”

Blair started to move away, but Jimmy held him firmly in place. He knew what the kid was thinking. “You don’t need to see.”

“Someone else can deal with that,” Jared said. He gave Blair a hand up and they both tugged Jimmy to his feet. “We were waiting, but I heard you guys were in trouble. Penny should be here soon; I think she flew.”

“Thanks,” Jimmy said. “Really. For everything.”

“Hey, we specials have to stick together,” Roddy quipped.

“We stopped to pick this up.” Jared handed Blair his notebook, and the kid looked about ready to cry again as he clutched the battered thing to his chest.

“We’ll go meet up with Penny and her posse.” Roddy and Jared headed back towards the cabin, melting into the shadows.

Jimmy slung his arm over Blair’s shoulders, and got them both moving. “You did really good today. You didn’t give up. That took a lot of guts.”

“I should’ve listened to you. Following… _him_ , was stupid.”

“Sure was,” Jimmy agreed. “But I should’ve helped you instead of arguing with you. I didn’t mean what I said.”

Blair nudged him with his shoulder. “Yeah, I know. Why do you think he wanted a Sentinel?”

“Dunno.” But he was certain Xander Barnhardt was involved somehow. “Oh, hey, I brought something for you.”

Jimmy pulled a flattened granola bar from his back pocket and handed it to the kid, who just stared at it. “I thought you might be hungry.” He’d lost the canteen somewhere along the line.

“You’re a good friend,” Blair said softly.

“More than that, Chief. I’m your Sentinel.”

The kid looked up at him with a grin. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. And you’re my Guide.”

Blair’s smile faltered. “What?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I realized it when we were looking for you. You’ve done more for me these past couple weeks than anyone else has been able to.”

“No. No, Guides are special. I’m nothing special.”

“Yeah, you are. Guides help their Sentinels, that’s what you said.”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Fact is,” Jimmy continued. “I’m more in control of my senses since you’ve been helping me. You pulled me out of a zone quicker than anyone has ever been able to. So yeah, you _are_ special.”

Blair flushed to the tips of his ears and scuffed his feet. “Shut up.”

“ _You_ shut up.”

They both looked at each other and burst out laughing. Jimmy crooked his elbow around Blair’s neck and pulled him in close for a one-armed hug.

“Let’s go get rescued,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** I originally wrote Blair’s rescue after writing chapter two. LOL! I kept a lot of it the same, but of course had to make some changes to reflect other things in the story, particularly the identity of the man who had kidnapped Blair.
> 
> All the touchy-feely Jim and Blair scenes are dedicated to Smiles2Go. ::grins::


	9. Chapter 9

Jimmy, Blair, Penny, Roddy and Jared were given a hero’s welcome when they returned to camp, despite the fact that it was only four in the morning. They were all hustled off to the Infirmary, to be examined by Mr. Finch. Camp In-Ca-Cha was soon crawling with Forest Rangers and State Troopers as Willy Coeter’s body was carried out of the woods. Probably considering this the mother of all Code 9s, Miss Miles kept Jimmy, Blair and the others shielded at least temporarily.

“Ten more minutes then back to your cabins!” Mr. Finch glared at Penny, Roddy and Jared before going back out to the front office. They had to leave, but Jimmy and Blair were spending what was left of the night; Blair because he was dehydrated and shocky, Jimmy because he refused to leave his friend alone.

“What’s our cover story?” Jared asked in hushed tones. “We can’t say anything about the super powers.”

“Let’s not lie more than we have to,” Jimmy advised. His hands had been cleaned and wrapped in bandages; he poked at the wrappings restlessly.

“So why was I in the woods?” Blair asked.

“We all heard about the so-called ghost,” Roddy said. “So we can say you saw something and went to investigate.”

“Willy caught you following him and took you to that cabin in the woods,” Penny added. “Do we go with crazy here or what?”

“Best to play dumb,” Jared said. “We don’t know what he wanted or why he did what he did. Which is mostly true anyway.”

Jimmy nodded. “I wanted to search the woods and you guys came along to see if we could use our CSI skills.”

“Which we totally did.” Roddy grinned. “Team Kick-Ass saved the day!”

They all laughed, and then Mr. Finch was pushing them out the door, shutting the light as he went.

Jimmy and Blair lay quietly in the dark for a while, Jimmy listening to the comforting sound of his bunkmate’s heartbeat. He figured the kid would drop right off to sleep – he had to be exhausted – but ten minutes later he could hear sniffling coming from the other bed. He wasn’t sure if he should say something, but his new-found protective instincts rose up.

“You okay?” he asked, rising up on one elbow. He thought about adjusting his vision, but decided to give Blair what privacy the darkness provided. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” was the husky reply.

“Blair.”

“It’s just…I thought you were gonna fall. And I couldn’t…couldn’t help you.” The kid’s next words were muffled by his pillow, but Jimmy could make them out well enough. “I hate being so small.”

“I don’t see you as small,” he said truthfully. “Everything else about you is so big – your loyalty, your excitement, your bravery. You risked your own life to try and save mine. That’s huge, Blair.”

Silence spilled out between them again, and Jimmy settled back down on his bed. The sniffling quickly stopped and he was glad to have made the kid feel better. That’s what he tried to focus on when memories of Willy’s last moments tried to replay themselves in his head.

“Good night,” he whispered when he heard Blair’s breathing began to even out as he fell asleep.

“Mmm too,” came the sleepy, mumbled response. 

Under the cover of darkness, once he was certain Blair was out, Jimmy turned into his own pillow and cried out all his fear and helplessness until he, too, fell asleep.

*o*o*o*

The following morning it seemed half the camp stopped by the Infirmary on their way to class, even Ginger who fixed them a special breakfast. Speculation was running wild about why Willy had kidnapped Blair; maybe he was a pedophile or a blackmailer or a serial killer. Miss Miles shooed the last of the hangers-on when she dropped by for her own visit.

“I’m so glad you boys are okay,” she said, smiling warmly. “You had us worried, Blair.”

“Sorry, Miss Miles.”

She sat on the edge of Blair’s bed. “State Police and Forestry Services are here. There’s going to be a full investigation. I can only hope Mr. Barnhardt can keep the news media out of this.”

Jimmy and Blair exchanged a look. Between visitors, Jimmy had told his friend about his meeting with the Camp Administrator and they both agreed the man was up to something. Something bad.

“If you boys are up to it, the authorities would like to talk to you. Nothing to be concerned about. They just want to understand what happened.”

Jimmy sighed. He didn’t want to talk anymore about it. He was tired of thinking about Willy, about how he’d been responsible for the death of another person, even if he was a bad person. Every time he looked at Blair, he was flooded with gratitude that the kid had escaped his ordeal relatively unscathed.

“I’m still really tired,” Blair said. He yawned, his jaw practically cracking from opening his mouth so wide. Jimmy hid a grin and absently scratched at his arm; the kid was overdoing it just a bit.

“Of course you are, poor thing.” Miss Miles patted him on the head. “You boys get some rest and I’ll have the officers come speak to you after lunch. Okay?”

“Yes, m’am.” Jimmy’s smile fell away as his discomfort increased. It could only mean one thing.

“Mr. Ellison. Mr. Sandburg. Glad to see you both looking so well.” Xander Barnhardt came through the door, a wide grin plastered on his face. Miss Miles looked flustered.

“Sir! I didn’t expect you…”

“If you don’t mind, Nancy, I’d like to have a chat with our camp heroes.”

Blair looked at Jimmy fearfully.

“Oh, well, they’re pretty tired…”

One firm look from Mr. Barnhardt was enough to quell any further argument she might have made, and Miss Miles hurried out the door, which closed behind her. The Camp Administrator pulled up a metal folding chair, sitting where he could see both boys.

“You two had quite an adventure, I’m told.” He propped his ankle on the opposite knee and leaned back, looking as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “How clever of you to find young Blair in the woods, when we were all looking elsewhere.”

“I told you he didn’t run away,” Jimmy muttered.

“How lucky for all of us that you were right. Although perhaps not so lucky for Mr. Coeter.” Mr. Barnhardt shifted his gaze to Blair. “James was very persistent on your behalf.”

The kid just nodded, his jaw clenched tightly as if he were afraid to say anything.

“I suppose we’ll never know why Mr. Coeter did what he did.” Mr. Barnhardt’s eyes narrowed as he studied both boys. “He said nothing to you? Nothing at all?”

 _Nothing to implicate you_ , Jimmy thought to himself. That seemed to be what he wanted to know. But why would the Camp Administrator be involved with someone like Willy? Was it Mr. Barnhardt that wanted to know who the Sentinel was?

“No, Sir,” Blair said, having found his voice. “He just talked about things that made no sense.”

“Things like what?”

“Superheroes,” Jimmy said. “He talked about superheroes like they were real people.”

Mr. Barnhardt studied him, lips pursed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Blair jumped in.

“That’s kid stuff. He must’ve been crazy. Grownups don’t believe in superheroes, right? Sir?”

“Of course not.” The Camp Administrator smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Well, I’ll let you boys get some rest.”

“Thank you for checking on us,” Blair said, so sweetly that Jimmy rolled his eyes.

Mr. Barnhardt stood, moving the chair back. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be keeping my eye on you two.”

With that vague threat hanging in the air, he took his leave. Jimmy laid his head back on the pillow and waited for his skin to stop crawling.

“Man, he’s scary.”

“Told you so.”

“Do you think he’ll do anything?”

Jimmy shook his head. “He can’t. There’s too much attention on us now.”

“Well, just be careful, okay?” Blair looked worried and Jimmy couldn’t help but smile. It was nice having someone be concerned about his welfare. Bud always was, of course, but sometimes he wondered if that was more out of pity than anything else. With Blair, it was rooted in friendship and that made all the difference.

*o*o*o*

Jimmy and Blair walked back to their cabin after dinner. They’d survived questioning by the authorities, and even tougher questions from the campers who had crowded around their dinner table. Ben had finally chased the well-wishers and curiosity seekers away.

“I think we’re camp legends now,” Blair said, hands shoved in his pockets. 

“I guess.”

“Probably tell stories about us around the campfire and everything.”

Jimmy chuckled. “I had no idea you were such a glory hound.” His hands were still tightly bandaged, ensuring that he’d be unable to participate in either archery or football for the remainder of camp. He didn’t mind too much.

As they drew closer to the Jaguar cabins, he could see Hamburger out front talking to a woman he’d never seen before. He was instantly on the alert – he’d had enough surprises the last couple of weeks to last a lifetime.

“Oh, no,” Blair groaned.

“What is it?” Jimmy asked. The kid’s heart was beating way too fast. He got his answer when Hamburger ducked inside the cabin and the woman turned and caught sight of them.

“Oh, honey!”

She rushed forward, her brightly patterned skirt swirling around her ankles, and pulled Blair into a suffocatingly tight hug, her eyes brimming with tears. Though they didn’t look much alike, Jimmy thought it was a pretty reasonable assumption that this was Mrs. Sandburg.

“Can’t breathe,” the kid gasped, pulling back.

“Oh, sweetie! Let me look at you.” She turned Blair’s face this way and that, taking in each and every bruise and scrape.

“I’m fine.”

“It was a mistake, leaving you here.” Mrs. Sandburg let go of her son’s face and hugged herself. “What was I thinking? Well, I thought it would be safe, obviously. I knew we should’ve stayed together.”

“What are you doing here?” Blair asked. Jimmy could see that he was embarrassed and a bit angry as well. He wished he could say something helpful, but had a feeling he’d just make things worse.

“What do you mean? I’m getting you out of here! That Mr. Barnhardt will be lucky I don’t sue him and his camp.”

“What? No!” Blair took a step back. “I still have a week left!”

“Absolutely not. We’re going straight to see Alma for a cleansing. My chi is all out of whack, thanks to this.”

“I want to finish my classes.”

“I’ll find you better classes, sweetie. Safer classes. I had your laptop fixed, so maybe we’ll find something online.”

“Why do you always do this?” Blair’s voice had a tremulous quality to it that made Jimmy want to step between him and his mother. “Every time I start fitting in somewhere, you make me leave. I don’t want to leave.”

“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Mrs. Sandburg said flatly. “It’s not easy, being a single mother. I have to make the hard decisions.”

Jimmy felt bad for his friend. It was clear that nothing he had to say would sway his mother. Blair was getting upset, and he himself had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

“Naomi, _please_.”

“Mr. Barnhardt is putting me up in the guest cabin for the night, and first thing tomorrow we’re leaving. So pack up your things.” Mrs. Sandburg gave the kid a kiss on the cheek, which he endured with a stony expression. “It’s what’s best, honey.”

Blair looked like he was going to cry, and Jimmy had to say _something_.

“Mrs. Sandburg? I’m Blair’s friend. Jimmy Ellison.” He started to put out his hand and then remembered the bandages. “I don’t know what Mr. Barnhardt told you, but Blair saved my life. He’s a big hero.”

He rested one hand on the kid’s shoulder. “You should be real proud of him.”

Mrs. Sandburg gave him a considering look. “I heard the whole thing, of course. Thank you for what you did for my son.”

“Mom…”

“I’m sorry Blair. I’ve already called Alma. And I want to get you away from the negative energies in this place. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

“Weren’t worried about that in Egypt,” Blair replied, his voice laced with bitterness. His mother frowned.

“We’re not discussing that. Be ready first thing, I don’t want to linger here any longer than I have to. Pleasure to meet you, Jimmy.” With that she turned and walked away, Hamburger reappearing on the scene with an apologetic look for Blair as he showed her the way to the guest cabin.

“I hate her sometimes,” Blair said under his breath.

“At least she came,” Jimmy replied.

“Do you think they called your dad too?”

He shrugged, used to being disappointed. “Probably. I can guarantee he won’t be coming to check up on me. All’s well that ends well, that’s his motto.”

By unspoken agreement they walked past the cabins and down to the lakeshore. They sat at the end of the dock, legs hanging over the edge.

“I wish I didn’t have to go.” The sadness in Blair’s voice reminded Jimmy of the boy who’d cried himself to sleep that first night at camp. Funny how things changed.

“You have a laptop, right?”

“So?”

Jimmy bumped him with his shoulder. “So, we can e-mail. It’s not like we’ll never talk to each other again.”

“You’ll really write me?” Blair asked hopefully.

“Sure I will. And you can call me anytime.”

The kid grinned, looking relieved. “You know, I’m going to do a lot more research on Sentinels. I bet there’s lots we don’t know about your powers.”

“Yeah, well, you better read up on Guides too. Now that I have one, I want to keep him.”

The kid blushed, but the light of excitement continued to burn in his eyes. “I will. I’ll be the best Guide ever!”

“You already are, Chief.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while. Jimmy planned on doing some research himself, but not about Sentinels. He wanted to know more about Xander Barnhardt. He hated leaving things unresolved. He just knew the man was up to something, and he vowed to find out what.

When it got too chilly to sit by the water, Jimmy and Blair headed back to the cabin. Jimmy burned with the unfairness of the situation. He felt like he’d gained so much in the last few weeks, and now he was going to lose it. As he fell asleep, his last time to be soothed by Blair’s heartbeat, he couldn’t help but feel that Mr. Barnhardt had done this on purpose. To keep the Sentinel from his Guide.

*o*o*o*

As promised, Mrs. Sandburg was ready first thing in the morning. Jimmy and Blair had exchanged contact information the night before, and now stood awkwardly beside the rental car.

“I made something for you.” Blair shoved a piece of pottery at Jimmy. It was a tall, somewhat lopsided mug. There was a sculpted J on the front of it and the whole thing had been glazed forest green. Carefully carved into the bottom was the kid’s name and the date he’d made it.

“This is great! Thanks.” He was absurdly touched by the gesture. He wasn’t without his own, either. Always an early riser, he’d enlisted some help from a classmate of Blair’s from photography class. They’d printed out the pictures the kid had taken. They’d all been good – he had a really good eye – but the only one Jimmy had kept for himself was the picture of the two of them together.

“To remember camp,” he said when he handed over the plastic envelope.

Blair took the photos, his eyes shimmering with tears. “How’d you get these?”

“Burke helped me.”

“This is awesome. Thanks, man.”

Unsure what else to say, Jimmy pulled Blair into a quick hug. The kid hugged him back fiercely.

“You’re my best friend,” he whispered, voice thick with emotion.

Jimmy bit his bottom lip, his chest constricting. “You’re mine too, Chief.” And who’d have guessed that would be true, especially with a scrawny little kid like Blair? It was crazy, but for them it worked.

“Let’s go,” Mrs. Sandburg said from the driver’s seat. She was looking a bit misty-eyed herself.

“I better hear from you when I get back home,” Jimmy said.

“Promise.” Blair got into the back seat, clutching the photos to his chest.

As the car drove away, Jimmy stayed tuned into the kid’s heartbeat for as long as he could. When the sound of it had faded away, the loss was deep and biting. It was as if he’d lost a little piece of himself. But he knew it wouldn’t be gone forever. The Sentinel and the Guide would be together again.

“Promise,” he whispered. And walked back to camp.

[](http://s229.photobucket.com/user/mommybruno/media/Title%20Cards/Sentinel%20Summer%20Camp_by%20Bonanza.png.html)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN:** The final chapter. I had a lot of fun writing these guys as kids and I hope you had fun reading them. 
> 
> I won't promise a sequel, I'll just say I have ideas for one. No telling when it might bubble up to the surface. ::grins::
> 
>  **ETA:** The adorable art is courtesy of [Bonanza](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/showerdownbonanza), who was inspired by this story. Isn't it amazing? I love it! Thank you so much, Bonanza!


End file.
